Maori name for South Island

The South Island first existed in some legends of M?ori as the boat of Maui, while the North Island was the fish he caught. Pounamu Te Wai (The place of Greenstone), The middle island; The South Island.

North and South Islands are now formally known as Te Ika-a-Maui and Te Waipounamu, the government has heralded.

North and South Islands are now formally known as Te Ika-a-Maui and Te Waipounamu, the government has heralded. Maurice Williamson, Minister of Land Information, has this afternoons formalized the North and South, which had no status so far. "It is only right and proper, as an integrated part of New Zealand's patrimony and culture, that the North Island and South Island designations be made public under the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 2008."

"Instead, everyone will have the option of continuing to call the island what they always have, or to use the allocated options, or to use both together if they wish," he said. He said it was overwhelmingly popular that the English or Maori name should be used in the election. Out of the proposals submitted, 64 percent were in favour of Te Ika-a-Maui, 65 percent in favour of Te Waipounamu, 87 percent in favour of North Island and 88 percent in favour of South Island.

cable

"Only since the 1950' s, the Maori name of the two major isles no longer appear on the map." Te Ika a Maui means "the Maui' s fish", according to a Maori myth that the North Island was caught from the ocean by an early researcher called Maui.

The Waipounamu means "the water of Greenstone" and marks the wide-spread spread occurrence of Java on the South Island. "I have to say, looking at the North and South Islands, it's a little uninspired. "If we want Maori nicknames, I'm for it."

New Zealand Maori Names - 1966 Encyclopedia of New Zealand - Te Ara

The information was originally released in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, by A. H. McLintock. It' s questionable whether the New Zealand Maori had a general name for the North Island, the South Island and the adjacent coast of New Zealand in pre-historic age. One of Queen Charlotte Sound's old Maori at the Cook's first trip in 1770 used a name that Cook pronounced "Aeheino mouwe" while pointing to the North Island, and a name that Cook used as "Tovy-poenammu" for two countries south of Cook Strait, probably deriving from "te vai pounamu", which means the " green stone of the waters ", whereby the green stone of the South Island was appreciated both by the Maoris of the North and the South Island.

Indirectly proof that some Maoris from Cook's day used the name Aotea for a significant part of the North Island is J. Andia y Varela, the master of one of the vessels of a Spaniard outing to Tahiti at about the height of Cook's second Pacific journey.

Between 1773-74 Cook, with two Tahitian companions, made a round tour visiting Tongatabu, in the Tonga group, New Zealand, and Vaitahu, in the Marquesas group. Soon after Cook's departing from Tahiti, where he abandoned one of the Tahitians who had been with him on this tour, Andia collected the name of a number of Tahitian islanders, among them "Tonetapu", "Guaytaho", "Ponamu" and "Iaotea".

These first three are reminiscent of Tongatabu, Vaitahu and "Tovy-poenammu". Obviously the forth is the name Aotea. Between 1773-74 Cook had followed the south-east shore of North Island and paid a visit to Queen Charlotte Sound. Aotea' s name may have been preserved either at this point or on Cook's first trip when his journey had contact with Maoris on the North Island's eastern shore and Queen Charlotte Sound.

That both Ponamu, which reflects Cook's "Tovy-poenammu" as a name for a part or the whole South Island, and Iaotea appear in Andia's listing, suggests that the name Aotea was preserved on the North Island. By the middle of the 19th centuries Sir George Grey was collecting Maori tradition in which Aotea was mentioned as the target of the Maori canoe, meaning that the name covered at least a significant part of the North Island.

Aotearoa is also in Grey's name. Kupe was called "Aotearoa" (see below) in a copy of Kupe's New Zealand exploration, given by Maori preacher Te Matorohanga at the end of the 19th cent. S. Percy Smith translates this name as "long blank cloud".

However, Henry Williams noted that the name "Aotearoa" was unintelligible to some 19th centurys, to whom it was given by Te Matorohanga, and that the words "long blank cloud" were not the same. Irrespective of their initial significance, it is possible that the constituents of "Aotea" had no longer had this significance when "roa", which means "long", was attached, in which case Aotearoa would just mean "long Aotea".

There is no question that a general Maori name for the major New Zealand isles was indispensable in later days and is still used today. The Aotearoa meets the need.