Kororāreka Marae chairwoman Deb Rewiri by the waharoa (gateway) welcoming visitors to the Bay of Islands town. Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf
A decision about the name of a historic Bay of Islands town appears to have stalled, almost three years after a marae applied to change Russell back to the original Kororāreka.
In September 2021 the Kororāreka Marae Society lodged a name-change application with the New Zealand Geographic Board, which considered three options: An outright change to Kororāreka, the dual name Kororāreka/Russell, or the alternative names option where both have equal standing.
When the board was unable to reach a decision, responsibility was handed to Land Information Minister Damien O'Connor in the previous government.
Following last year's election the Geographic Board report then made its way to the desk of Chris Penk, the current minister in the coalition government.
Kororāreka Marae Society chair Deb Rewiri said the long wait was frustrating.
"But I've been advised just to let [the new government] settle in and they will get to it, and to be patient. That's a hard task for me, because this has been rolling on for a few years now."
Rewiri said she believed the society's application had been positively received by the Geographic Board, which had referred it up to the minister for final approval.
"While Damien O'Connor was in the previous government, he could have actually pushed that across the line. I don't know the reason he didn't. And so now what we're doing is relying on the National government to have the final word."
Despite the delays, Rewiri said she was optimistic the name change - or "name restoration" as she preferred to call it - would go ahead.
"I'm always hopeful that we will get it across the line, because I'm looking at what's happening around the country, and these traditional names of communities that were originally there are coming back."
As an example, she cited the Whangārei suburb of Kamo, which had recently reverted to its previous name of Te Kamo - even though most submissions called for the status quo.
In Russell's case, according to the Geographic Board's report, the number of submissions for and against was an almost even split.
Arguments for not changing the name included that Russell was well known as a tourist destination under that name, and that Kororāreka was too long and difficult to pronounce.
Rewiri said she often heard it said that Māori places names were difficult.
"But given it's only one of our official languages I think it's time that we all emotionally grew up and learnt to practise. Because if you break the word down, it's actually very easy to articulate, and then you can roll it together.
"So, I just think it's it's an easy cop-out, not a rational argument."
She said Russell was the only town in Northland not known by its original Māori name, and people seemed to manage with the region's other place names.
Whatever the government's decision, she said Kororāreka was already in common use, with many businesses already using it and people writing Kororāreka/Russell on their correspondence.
The name was also carved on the waharoa (gateway) welcoming visitors to the town, she said.
The name Kororāreka already appears in many places around Russell, including at Christ Church, New Zealand's oldest church still in use Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf
As was the case with Taranaki/Mount Egmont, she expected Kororāreka would become the preferred name over time.
Rewiri said there had been calls for a local referendum to settle the debate.
However, with up to 75 percent of homes in the town owned by holidaymakers, she said that would hand the decision to people who spent just a few weeks a year in town, while shutting out those who had whakapapa to the area but resided elsewhere.
Bill Edwards, Heritage New Zealand's Northland manager, said there was a curious twist in the tale of how Russell got its name.
While many people thought of Russell as the first capital of New Zealand, the Russell of then was not the Russell of now.
New Zealand's first capital was established at what is now known as Ōkiato, about 8km south of present-day Russell, where the car ferry from Ōpua docks.
That Russell was named after Lord John Russell, a British politician who never set foot in New Zealand.
In 1841 the nation's capital moved to Auckland, and a year later the original Russell was destroyed by fire and faded into obscurity.
Edwards said at that time the name Kororāreka was used by Māori and Pākehā alike.
In contrast to the fading role of the original Russell, Kororāreka was a bustling port with good anchorage and plenty of fresh water.
The wider waters around Kororāreka and the original capital were known as the Port of Russell, so in 1844 Governor Robert FitzRoy officially designated Kororāreka as part of the township of Russell.
Edwards said Heritage New Zealand had no position on what the town's name should be, but he did have a personal view.
"I think Kororāreka is the name it should be, because that's what it was called, and Russell just sort of slipped in there," he said.
The name Kororāreka is already widely used around Russell, including here at the Russell Museum. Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf
As for the origin of the name Kororāreka, Rewiri said it came from the words kororā, or little blue penguin, and reka, meaning sweet or delicious.
"What I've been told is that one of our chiefs, he was ailing. And so the soup of the kororā was brought to him. And so he said, 'kororā reka', or 'how sweet is that kororā broth'."
Land Information Minister Chris Penk told RNZ he was still considering the report from the Geographic Board, and Cabinet had yet to make a decision.
A report from December 2022 showed the board's preferred option was for an outright change from Russell to Kororāreka.
However, minutes from the Geographic Board meeting of 22 June 2023, released under the Official Information Act, showed the board asked the minister for land information to make the final determination.
The minutes, which were heavily redacted, stated there were similar numbers of submissions for and against the proposal.
They also stated both Russell and Kororāreka had a unique place in New Zealand history, and both names were well-known to many New Zealanders.
"Although a substantial number of submitters object to an outright change, quite a number support alternative or dual names. This indicates that they don't want Russell dropped but also support Kororāreka being restored, and this demonstrates fairly strong support for Kororāreka to be recognised somehow," the minutes said.
"The option of having Kororāreka and Russell as alternative official names would allow both names to be used in much the same way that the board had done for the North Island and South Island - Te Ika-a-Māui and Te Wai Pounamu.
"This might also provide for a natural transition to the original Māori name over time, although this could not be guaranteed. It would also address Whangārei District Council's concerns about the cost of transitioning."
The minutes said a few "very abusive" submissions had been received, which were difficult for the secretariat to read and process.
The chair had removed two objecting submissions with abusive content from consideration.
The secretariat was working through a process to filter out submissions that contained abusive and or offensive content in future, but there was always a danger genuine submissions would inadvertently be rejected.
