The search for a new name for the Clive River has taken another turn.
In May a petition was presented to the Ngā PouTaunaha o Aotearoa NZ Geographic Board to return Clive River to its original name “Ngaruroro Moko-tū-ā-raro ki Rangatira” asking that mana whenua be consulted on a suggested shortened version to “Ngaruroro Moko”.
But the Board responded recently saying it couldn’t support both the larger Ngaruroro and the Clive rivershaving the same name because of the confusion it could cause, particularly in an emergency. It encouraged organisers to come up with another name.
Now Operation Patiki, who launched the first petition with the Aotearoa NZ Green Party, are holding another meeting on 6 October at Kohupātiki Marae to discuss new names (see event details below).
The naming of Clive River dates back to 1975 when the Ngaruroro River was diverted down a new channel near Pakowhai Country Park as part of a flood control scheme. The old channel was blocked off becoming the primary outlet for the Raupare and Karamu streams and was re-named the Clive River after the nearby town’s namesake, Major-General Robert Clive, widely considered the British Empire’s Founder in India.
Dr Elizabeth Kerekere, Green List MP based in Tairāwhiti, who supported the original petition and will be at the October 6 meeting says, “The town and then the river were named after a man who never even came here. There is no good reason for it. It was a name just plucked out of the past.”
For mana whenua like Aki Arconnehi Paipper and her whānau, who grew up at Kohupātiki Marae beside the old Ngaruroro, the name change to Clive and the river’s ongoing degradation endangering the survival of endemic species such as the longfin eel and patiki (black flounder) is a travesty that she has been fighting for years.
“We need to change the name to get our mana back,” she says, “and to honour our ancestors who came on the Takitimu”.
Aki, her sister Margie McGuire and their whānau have formed Operation Pātiki to fight for the river’s name and for its health. Eels fished up from the river recently were covered in green slime and where once it was a place to swim on a hot summer’s day, now no one goes near the polluted river waters.
Operation Pātiki has done a lot of planting by the river and Aki says despite it all, “I believe the awa’s mauri is still alive”.
Why not rename it Whakatu after the immediate area township and the old meat company that closed 36 years ago.
Like the river it has history, it provided employment for thousands for over 80 years from all parts of the local area. The river provided a passage for boats to pick up wool, water for a wool scour and now for orchards and other industries that all add value to Hawkes Bay.
While I fully support the movement to clean-up and revitalise Hawke’s Bay’s and New Zealand’s waterways and other environments, I’m not sold on the desire to rename places.
Certainly the logic to rename a location, geographical feature etc because it was named after someone who has never been here is flawed and if followed would certainly result in a large number of streets in central Napier requiring renaming as well as the city itself??
There is a process that accommodates change .
The thing is it already was named pre European. So you say its ok anytime you want to usurp an already named river to accommodate your intention?