Dear Television New Zealand Limited,

Use of Aotearoa instead of New Zealand

I wish to request under the official information act why TNZ is naming shows "Aotearoa", like the Apprentice "Aotearoa" instead of "New Zealand" and what the rational is for this. New Zealand is the legal name of our country no official name change or referendum has taken place to change this.

Aotearoa is actually one of the Māori names for the North Island of New Zealand, and has never included the South Island of New Zealand.

Please provide justification for.

Yours faithfully,

Liz Simons

Dear Brent McAnulty,

Follow-up Official Information Act request. I request under the Official Information Act the following additional information:

I don't doubt that modern revisionist Maori language has adopted the new term of "Aotearoa" since the term of New Zealand to expand from its original meaning refer to the whole country in modern Te Reo. To follow up on my request does TVNZ allow the use of "Nu Tireni" which is the original Maori translation for New Zealand (also listed in the earliest use of Te Reo in the United Tribes of New Zealand declaration of independence) by your creators and presenters in program titles to allow autonomy over which name they opt for as a means to deliver a modern and inclusive broadcast for audiences.

Additionally if a referendum was held and name legally changed "New Zealand" to "Aotearoa" would TVNZ still allow your creators and presenters to use the name "New Zealand" in modern title programming to refer to the whole country as part of way to deliver a modern and inclusive broadcast for audiences when presenting in English language.

Lastly your naming conventions do not appear to follow any logical or consistent convention with respect to the context terms are provided in. Be it legal names for things or different language context. Can you please provide your language conventions policy for use on air.

Yours sincerely,

Liz Simons

Dear Brent McAnulty,

To clarify I request under the Official Information Act the following:

Does TVNZ allow the use of "Nu Tireni" the original Maori translation for New Zealand in program titles.

If a referendum was held and the legal name of our country changed from "New Zealand" to "Aotearoa" would TVNZ still allow the use of the name "New Zealand" in title programming for audiences when presenting in English language. So that the culture of those who didn't vote for it may still be represented.

Lastly please provide your language conventions policy around Maori and English for use on air use.

Yours sincerely,

Liz Simons

Dear Brent McAnulty,

Thank you for the response. I know it's not an easy subject and that it takes time for you to prepare official positions. I'm grateful for your time and efforts. I'm sure you can however also appreciate that this change seems to have at all come at once and many find it hurtful and insulting that a name change by stealth or at least the social influencing of one is occuring without general consensus from the population first. In essence one culture is supplanting another with a revisionist term where the majority of the population is of the other cultural persuasion. I like many stand firmly for our heritage and I firmly reject the kind of reinventing of our country to a name that has evolved from a meaning it didn't used to have so that our whole country can be primed for a name change debate.

If we truly want to be forward looking and truely inclusive, - not replacing one culture with another, then why aren't we looking at a completely new name that neither has New Zealand European or New Zealand Maori orgins. Though it could also be argued that New Zealand(Anglicised British version), Nova Zealandia(Dutch), and Nu Tireni (original Maori name and understanding used in the Treaty) is of equal historical value to all cultures.

Renaming conventions typically just show the majority population dominance over the prior culture something that has not occurred in New Zealand. The percentage of Maori has increased but its more the level of self-identification as the majority of New Zealand Maori are also becoming more and more of New Zealand European decent and can equally claim this culture. Naming conventions pose a lot of issues such as those mentioned in this article and typically just relate to the power dynamics:

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsod...

Could you please advise if this recent increase in change of New Zealand to Aotearoa is driven by TVNZ to use as much Te Reo as possible to meet requirements for new funding that is provided by central government. Because I believe the issue of the use of Te Reo Maori is separate from the generalised name change of our country and I believe there are many many more people concerned with this development.

Yours sincerely,

Liz Simons