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  "description": "The name that unites us – the name recognised throughout the world – the name carried through war, peace, hardship, triumph, and generations of shared endeavour – is New Zealand.",
  "path": "/why-the-word-aotearoa-should-be-discarded/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-19T00:00:42.000Z",
  "site": "https://goodoil.news",
  "tags": [
    "Alfred Johns",
    "Brash and Mitchell."
  ],
  "textContent": "Alfred Johns\n\nFellow New Zealanders,\n\nI want to say about something far greater than politics. I speak about identity, history, truth, and the name of our nation — the name by which the world has known us for generations: that is **“New Zealand”**.\n\nNames matter.\n\nA country’s name is not simply a word on a map. It is the banner under which generations have lived, worked, fought, sacrificed, built families, built communities, and built a nation. It is the name carried by our soldiers, our sports teams, our exporters, our passports, and our people across every corner of the world.\n\nAnd that name is New Zealand.\n\nFor 383 years, since 1643, this land has been internationally recognised as New Zealand. When Abel Tasman and Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu reported this discovery back to the States General – the Parliament of Holland – this land was given the name “New Zealand”. Since that time, through every generation, every law, every treaty, every map, and every international relationship, this country has been known as New Zealand.\n\nThat is not opinion.\n\nThat is historical fact.\n\nBefore European arrival, there was no single united Māori nation governing all the land, foreshore, offshore islands, and seabed of what we now know as New Zealand. Māori society was tribal in structure – iwi and hapū, each with their own territories, traditions, and identities.\n\nThere was no single nationwide Māori name that collectively described the entire landmass and surrounding territories of modern New Zealand.\n\nThat reality should not diminish Māori history or culture. Māori heritage is an important and treasured part of our nation. But respecting history also means being truthful about history.\n\nThe claim that “Aotearoa” has always been the name of the whole country is not supported by historical evidence.\n\nThe term _Aotearoa_ gained wider use much later and was popularised in the late 19th century by S Percy Smith, a European writer, through retellings and interpretations connected to his story of Kupe. It was not historically established as a unified national name covering all of modern New Zealand in pre-European times.\n\nAnd so I say this clearly:\n\nNew Zealand is not a colonial insult.\n\nNew Zealand is not something to be ashamed of.\n\nNew Zealand is the name under which this nation was built.\n\nIt is the name under which Māori, European, Pacific peoples, Asians, and countless migrants from around the world came together to create one of the finest countries on Earth.\n\nWe are New Zealanders.\n\nNot because of race.\n\nNot because of ancestry.\n\nBut because we share a nation, a history, a future, and a common identity.\n\nChanging or replacing our country’s name is not a small symbolic gesture. It risks dividing people where unity is needed most. It risks rewriting history instead of understanding it. And it risks disconnecting future generations from the name that has united this country for centuries.\n\nA mature nation does not erase its past.\n\nA mature nation acknowledges all parts of its history honestly and proudly.\n\nWe can honour Māori culture without rewriting historical fact.\n\nWe can celebrate te reo Māori without abandoning the internationally recognised name of our nation.\n\nWe can walk together as one people without pretending history was something it was not.\n\nThis country belongs to every New Zealander equally.\n\nAnd the name that unites us – the name recognised throughout the world – the name carried through war, peace, hardship, triumph, and generations of shared endeavour – is New Zealand.\n\nLet us protect it.\n\nLet us preserve it.\n\nLet us proudly stand beneath it.\n\nNot divided.\n\nNot rewritten.\n\nBut united as one people, under one enduring name:\n\nNew Zealand.\n\n**_If you agree then I ask you to please forward the letter onto others._**\n\n_Alfred Johns, Te Aroha_\n\nThis article was republished by Brash and Mitchell.",
  "title": "Why the Word Aotearoa Should Be Discarded",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-19T00:01:48.777Z"
}