Town enjoys link to Kiwi PM’s baby

Council is holding a meeting today to discuss how to celebrate name

Jacinda Ardern has put a tiny farming community in rural New Zealand on the map by naming her baby after the town.

The community of Te Aroha welcomed the prime minister’s choice with open arms, declaring they would “paint the town pink” in her honour and praising her work to improve relations with Mori people.

On Sunday, Ardern and her partner, Clarke Gayford, emerged from Auckland hospital to announce their baby girl would be called Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford.

The second name is taken from the mountain and town, which means “love” in the Te Reo Mori language.

Across the country, New Zealanders described the choice as “romantic”, “beautiful” and “culturally significant” but it carried a more particular meaning for the town that is home to just over 3,900 people and lies 21km from Ardern’s birthplace of Morrinsville in the dairy-rich Waikato district.

Te Ao Marama Maaka, a spokeswoman for NgatiHaua, of the Tainui federation of tribes in the Te Aroha area, said she had been very close to Ardern since meeting her at Morrinsville high school, and that the prime minister’s empathy with and interest in the indigenous people of New Zealand was improving relations between Pakeha [European] and Mori faster than at any other point in history.

‘Will bind us forever’

Maaka said: “Te Aroha means a lot of love, because this baby has the love of the people throughout the country. I was really really happy. When Jacinda visited our tribe, that was our moment with her. But this name will now bind us forever.”

The council is holding a meeting today to discuss how to celebrate the baby’s name, with draft plans including repainting much of the town pink, (including freshening up the already pink Coulter Bridge) and commissioning a statue of Te Aroha mountain.