March 01, 2022
HE WHAKAARO | OPINION: What’s in a (Māori) name?
By Atakohu Middleton, Ngāti Māhanga
Kaiako/Lecturer, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau/Auckland University of Technology
What’s in a (Māori) name? Often, a great deal. In the past, our tūpuna had a single name, but individuals often took new names over the course of their lives to mark changes in circumstances in a way that helped maintain collective memory.
Colonisation brought the convention of surnames, and religion, iwitanga, whānau tradition and even war have played a part in naming practices. For example, Tunis, Alamein, Medenine, Faenza and Cassino, all significant World War II battle sites, have all been bestowed on babies as memorial for those lost.
Looking at my social circle, it seems that increasing numbers of people who were not given ingoa Māori as babies are assuming them in adulthood. You might, for example, have seen the recent Breakfast interview with Seven Sharp reporter Te Rauhiringa Brown, whom I met at a Rotorua kura reo when she was Krystal-Lee. Te Rauhiringa was, she said, “very grateful” and “privileged” to have been gifted her name by friends.
I am also very grateful for the name that was given to me five years ago, and I love the story that comes with it. Way back in 1969, the first name on my birth certificate was Julie, simply a name my parents liked. I was never particularly keen on it, but that was just the way it was. Then, in 2017, something really cool happened.
I was in Tokoroa for the annual kura reo at Te Papa o Te Aroha, which starts with a Sunday afternoon pōwhiri. Formalities nearly at an end, I was inching down the hongi line when someone I regard as a reo mentor, kura reo teacher Ngaringi Katipa, saw me coming down the line towards her. She called out, from a distance, “Pīrongia!” which at the time was her nickname for me (it’s my ancestral mountain).
Another reo inspiration, Pānia Papa, was standing next to her and wondered quietly if mountains should become nicknames. She asked Ngaringi if I had an ingoa Māori. Ngaringi guessed, correctly, that the answer was kāore.
What neither Pānia nor Ngaringi knew was that I had been keen on a Māori name for some time. But I hadn’t said anything to anyone, not even my tāne, as I knew that ingoa found you rather than the other way around. In my mind, it was up to the wāhi ngaro.
A couple of days later, in the whakawhanaunga at the beginning of the class she taught, Ngaringi said that she had pondered a name for me and Atakohu had come to her wairua (ata = morning and kohu = mist). For lots of reasons, it was perfect. I love that the name is rooted in the creation story, where the distress of Papatūānuku over her separation from Ranginui rises up to him as mist.
With the approval of my whānau, Atakohu became my legal name and Julie a second middle name. Now I bear handles that reflect my whakapapa and my British heritage, rather than just the latter. Tau kē!
Taking a Māori name in an English-dominated environment has provided some new experiences. Most of my Māori-speaking mates made the switch immediately, but some had recalcitrant brains that were slow to shake my old name; I’d simply correct them without making a fuss. I remember how slow my pīnati was when a cousin took a faith-based name a decade ago.
Helping those who without te reo to get their heads and tongues around the new moniker required some creative thinking, however. Although I prefer people use my whole name, if non-Māori look stricken at having to deal with four syllables, I lighten the load by suggesting they use Ata only and give them the silly mnemonic “Ata is utterly wonderful” to help them remember it.
Such outrageous immodesty usually raises a laugh, and koinā, they remember. Of course, this prompt means that they are saying the name with a sibilant English T rather than a Māori one, but it’ll do to get them started.
My husband’s mnemonic to help his non-Māori mates get the ‘kohu’ right is “Richie McCaw. Who?” They’re all rugby nutters and that prompt works for them. I’ll run with whatever works to help people say what’s in a (Māori) name.
Radio Waatea and its board would like to advise that the opinions posted are those of Atakohu Middleton and not necessarily the views of Radio Waatea, its management or its board.