Huntly’s bilingual train platform sign sparks row
A proposed bilingual train platform sign in Huntly has ignited passionate debate among Waikato councillors over the town’s rightful name.
At this week’s infrastructure committee meeting, Waikato District Councillors debated a motion to approve ‘‘Raahui Pookeka – Huntly’’ as the station’s platform name, following a recommendation from the Huntly Community Board.
But the town’s two councillors are against the Māori to English ordering, saying they’ll cop flack for putting a Māori name first.
Debate about Huntly’s name surfaced recently, with both Māori and Pākehā groups trying to return Raahui Pookeka as the official name.
The town’s name was changed from Raahui Pookeka after the first Postmaster General James Henry arrived, information from Waikato’s Coalfield Museum shows.
The name Raahui Pookeka originates from a pre-Kiingitanga chief Te Putu, who declared a rā Māori hui over the abundant eel stocks in Huntly’s waterways, later instructing families to distribute the food equally between the fishing and nonfishing families.
The name Huntly is thought to come from a rubber stamp Henry used in the 1870s, because he didn’t like Raahui Pookeka. Huntly is the Scottish village where Henry came from.
In July, Waahi Whaanui trust chair Huirama Matatahi said the colonial naming of the town, through a rubber stamp, was abrupt.
This year, the town’s train station is being upgraded for Te Huia, the upcoming commuter train from Hamilton to Auckland.
It’s now KiwiRail protocol to order the Waikato station names by Māori to English names, and Waikato-Tainui has written a letter of support for the Raahui Pookeka name, infrastructure committee chair Eugene Patterson said.
The Hamilton station platforms will be named ‘‘Kirikiriroa | Hamilton | Frankton’’, and ‘‘Kirikiriroa | Hamilton | Rotokauri’’, Patterson said.
But Huntly councillor Shelley Lynch refuted the Raahui Pookeka name, calling it a ‘‘description’’.
‘‘Did the community board consult with anyone, anyone at all? The community board consulted with a select group of iwi and that’s it.’’
Lynch said both cultures should be represented, but as the town is known by its English name, the sign needs the English name first.
Huntly Ward Councillor Frank McInally agreed: ‘‘Councillor Lynch and I are the ones in the firing line . . . my shop’s on the main highway and as soon as this comes out we’ll cop abuse from the older people of Huntly.’’
But Māngai Māori representative Brendon Green said he knew the importance of Raahui Pookeka to tangata whenua in the area.
‘‘I think the history of the naming of Raahui Pookeka, it’s about kaitiakitanga, stewardship and it really celebrates the importance of the Waikato River.’’
Going against the council’s joint management agreement with Waikato-Tainui, as well as Waka Kotahi NZTA and KiwiRail policy, would put the council in a precarious position, Green said.
Raglan councillor Lisa Thomson said Raahui Pookeka was more than just a name, it carried a whakapapa and history within it.
‘‘Names are intrinsic to identity on the landscape . . . the landscape has a whakapapa and it talks to why a name, like Raahui Pookeka, is there.’’
Waikato District Mayor Allan Sanson supported the Māori first signage, because it wasn’t worth picking a fight over, he said.
Eleven councillors approved the station platform name as Raahui Pookeka – Huntly, with three dissenters: Huntly councillors Frank McInally and Shelley Lynch, and Tūākau ward councillor Stephanie Henderson.