88: What does 'Aotearoa' really mean?
The purpose of this discussion is to show how things are interpreted, reinterpreted or changed according to situation or just by the passage of time. If it can happen with a single word, it can also happen to stories and legends…and the truth about those here before Polynesian (Maori) arrived.
An example of misunderstanding of word meaning can be used for the word pakeha. It is a derivative of Pakehakeha which was in reference to the white Gods of the sea (as Europeans were viewed on first sight). However, now the term Pakeha is taken to mean White Europeans. In fact that is incorrect. It means any non-Maori. That means in the terms of modern change and immigration, Chinese, Africans, Europeans and Hawaiians are all classed accurately as pakeha these days.
Before exploring the term ‘Pakeha’ it is important to define the term ‘Maori’. Defining ‘Maori’ allows for a reference point when discussing Pakeha, its origins and meaning in today’s society. In 1960, The Fern and the Tiki (Ausubel, 1960, glossary) defined Maori as "the indigenous Polynesian inhabitant of New Zealand". However, until about 1885 ‘Maori’ was still being defined as "usual or ordinary. The Maori used the word to describe themselves, as opposed to the ‘different’, European settlers, during the nineteenth century, and the Europeans in turn adopted it. Before the time of the arrival of Europeans, Maori had no name for themselves as a nation, only a number of tribal names" (Department of Labour, 1985). King (1985, p12) defines ‘Maori’ as a derivative "from ‘tangata maori’ meaning ordinary people" referring to the "descendants of the country’s first Polynesian immigrants". He writes that the term ‘Maori’ relates closely to "‘tangata whenua’: people of the land; but with connotations of ‘those who were here first’ and ‘host people" (King, 1985, p109).
Translation
The original derivation of Aotearoa is not known. The word can be broken up as: ao = cloud, dawn, daytime or world, tea = white, clear or bright and roa = long. ... In some traditional stories, Aotearoa was the name of the canoe of the explorer Kupe, and he named the land after it.
Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand, though it seems at first to have been used for the North Island only. Many meanings have been given for the name but with Maori names the true meaning can often be found only in a mythological story or in historical fiction illustrating either how the name was given or something of the ideas which prompted it. Aotearoa is made up of either two or three words, Aotea and roa, or Ao tea and roa. Aotea could be the name of one of the canoes of the great migration, the great magellan cloud near the bright star Canopus in summer, a bird or even food; ao is a cloud, dawn, daytime, or world; tea white or clear, perhaps bright, while roa means long or tall.
Kupe, so the stories go, was nearing land after his long voyage, the first sign of land was the peculiar cloud hanging over it. Kupe drew attention to it and said “Surely is a point of land”. His wife, Hine-te-aparangi, called out “He ao! He ao!” (a cloud! a cloud!) Later Kupe decided to call the land after his wife's greeting to it, and the cloud which welcomed them. The name Aotea was given both to the Great Barrier and to the North Island, but the latter became Aotearoa, presumably because of its length.
The origin of the name and where is was first applied is of interest, for the South Island was not known by the name until recently. In fact the name Aotearoa was originally the name of the South Island only and was adapted by Maori to mean the north because back between 1300 -1800, the north was where Maori were dominant. More recently it has been changed to mean the whole country. Now before you say that is wrong…the name now means the entire country. where in 1700’s it only meant the North Island. See the change? And if it changed once…you get the idea. Maori change many things just as Europeans do over periods of time.
Aotearoa
(literally, ao = cloud, tea = white, pale, roa = long). This could be translated as (the) long white cloud. It does not mean "Land of the Long White Cloud". In Māori that would be 'Te Whenua o Aotearoa'.
As with many Māori place names, the context from which the name derives is important. Traditional accounts suggest that Hine-te-aparangi, wife of well known pacific navigator/explorer Kupe, after a long ocean going voyage, sighted a particular cloud aotea that usually indicates the presence of land. The term roa can also indicate a length of time. Thus, a more accurate translation could be 'It has been a long time since seeing a cloud that indicates land'. Aotearoa is commonly given as the Māori name for New Zealand. Before the arrival of Europeans to the New Zealand, it probably only referred to the Te Ika a Maui (i.e., the North Island).
It became quite obvious that among researchers, linguists or historians that there was no doubt as to there being a very genuine origin to the Aotearoa name; and then it became very apparent that in the phrase, ‘land of the long white cloud’, that it was the cloud that was the object of importance, rather than the land.
According to certain authorities, the other meanings are: big glaring light (Hochstetter); continuously clear light, or land of abiding day (Stowell); long white world (Wilson); long bright world, long daylight, long lingering day, or long bright land (Cowan); and long bright day (Tregear). A good case could probably be made out for the land of abiding day, or similar names. Maui, who is closely connected with New Zealand in mythology, once snared the sun and beat him to make him travel more slowly across the sky. Perhaps Maui achieved the same end when he sailed south to fish up New Zealand where there is longer day with long twilight, particularly in the south. There is no doubt that the deeper name of this land originated in the south by a people already here before maori. As word meaning are similar to many Pacific nations and in fact the native languages between tribes were different from the north Island to the South island. Similar but with many variations as noted by Cook who travelled further within this land and recorded what he heard and saw better than any Maori did, whose main purpose in long distance travel was for war and conquest. Fact!
Aotearoa could as equally have it root in some of the variations and mean the cloud than reveals the land of light (as the south was with daylight up to 11pm at night in Otago/Southland at the height of summer.) Most interpretations focus on Maori voyages as to the name, forgetting or being ignorant that others were here before, as we will prove one day. With that in mind the meaning possibilities change dramatically.
Here therefore are the three most likely meanings from the common and incorrect Maori and Pakeha use of today, to the likely traditional meaning if the word did in fact begin with Maori, to the purest form if the word was borrowed from those already here (considering Aotearoa was originally just the South Island until Maori took the name for the North Island where 90% of their population existed and the day is short (hence the loss of true meaning).
Land of the long white cloud
Cloud that indicates the land we seek
Place of the abiding light, or long clear day (roa also meaning length of time)
Personally I think no.3 is more likely the ancient origin of the name from hose here first and that it's meaning was adapted as name meanings change (in the same way the word gay used to, and still does, mean 'happy') but that cannot be proved.
If you consider the article of 28th February 2017 which reveals evidence of a long established people from artifacts buried deep underground, and all in the south of the South Island…then the meaning may be more meaningful
