What’s in a name? How to acknowledge the past and move into the future.

OPINION

Collecting dust somewhere in Kirikiriroa is a crate with a statue in it. After his controversial removal, the life-size, bronze casting of Captain John Hamilton was covered in bubble wrap, shoved in a box and all but forgotten. 

Local opinions were divided over whether removing the statue was removing history, or if the name Hamilton should be removed along with the statue. But would changing the name of Hamilton to Kirikiriroa really remove the history of the area?

Our colonial past is still around us and continues to shape Kirikiriroa today. We do our groceries on Anglesea Street, named after the guy who led the charge in Waterloo. We can catch a bus on Bryce Street, named after John Bryce, the Minister for Native Affairs, who in 1881 led 1600 troops into the peaceful Maori village of Parihaka.  Or we could grab a coffee on Victoria Street, named after Queen Victoria.

Whether we change the name or keep it, history cannot be removed or changed, only remembered, or forgotten. Since no one in our country wants to forget our past, we must find ways so that all of it is remembered, even the parts we’re not that fond of. 

So, shouldn’t the question be, if we are to retain the name Hamilton, what history are we remembering? The city is the only place name in Aotearoa that has any connection to someone who died in the New Zealand Wars. The best estimate of the number of people who died in the New Zealand Wars is 2990 with Maori making up 75% of this total with 2254 deaths.

Why does Captain John Hamilton get a city named after him in modern-day Aotearoa and yet the other 2989 people are forgotten? 

30kms north of Kirikiriroa a similar conversation is being had. There are groups calling for the name of Huntly to revert back to its original name of Rāhui Pōkeka. The name was changed when the first postmaster, James Henry, moved to town and began using the stamp he had from his time working in the Scottish village of Huntly. According to The Waikato Coalfields Museum, either Henry himself, or his boss the Postmaster-General, didn’t like the name Rāhui Pōkeka, so called it Huntly instead. 

While the names Hamilton and Huntly have a valued history to them, if we are to retain them we are obliged to acknowledge the full history of their names, including the fact these places already had names and were changed by an invading force. The New Zealand Wars should not be forgotten, 2254 Maori fighting for what they were promised in Te Tiriti should not be forgotten. 

There is a sentiment that history should be viewed in the context of the time and that is fair. But the discussion of place names and the connotations those names have should be viewed in a modern context. Removing these reminders of our colonial past isn’t forgetting history, that is what museums and classrooms are for.

While we need to move forward from our past and fix our current issues, we can’t move forward if we can’t agree on what it is we’re moving forward from. We can’t fix our current issues if we ignore their root course. If it wasn’t for the New Zealand Wars, Captain John Hamilton may not have died in battle and Huntly in Scotland may have stayed the only Huntly in the world. If history is to be remembered, all of history should be remembered.