NOTE: Submissions close at 5pm on Tuesday 18 April 2023
Ngāti Kahu-o-Torongare and several hapū from Whangārei have made an application to the NZ Geographic Board to change the name of Kamo to Te Kamo.
Here’s their reason:
“The proposer…has advised [abridged]: Discussions among the hapū confirm Te Kamo was a resident rangatira/tupuna in the Te Kamo region. He was not a rangatira of extrovert proportions, rather he was an introvert who worked behind the scenes guiding the hapū with other rangatira. It is understood he worked to ensure Te Kamo (village) and its people were safe and lived comfortably on land that provided for their wellbeing. The whole area was considered by the hapū, Ngāti Kahu O Torongare, to be a pātaka (lit. pantry) with the ngahere (lit. forest) (Pukenui), the repo (lit. swamp) (Hikurangai) and the large māra kai (lit. food garden) areas providing all the provisions required. Te Kamo ensured the land was productive and also traded with the coastal hapū. (Confirmed by Warahi Heteraka of Ngāti Wai and acknowledged as a tupuna). The historical narratives have been eroded by colonisation and it is only recently that wananga are beginning to reveal historical and traditional knowledge from the past.”
No relevant dates or other information was available from the NZ Geographic Board website. A google search found one entry in NZ History. :
Reihana Rēweti (also known as Richard Davis, Te Kamo and Te Karoro) signed Te Tiriti at Port Nicholson on 29 April 1840.
In the years before the Treaty, he was taken captive by Ngāpuhi and lived with them in the north, where he became a pupil at the Anglican missions. In 1839 he travelled with Henry Williams from the Bay of Islands back to Port Nicholson, where he retained some land rights.
He went on to become a successful entrepreneur, with a house at Pipitea pā, a horse, a schooner and £300 in savings. Davis Street in Thorndon is named after him.
This may or may not be the very same Mr Te Kamo but if it is then Te Kamo was an alias, as was Te Karoro as was Richard Davis. Based on this entry it is highly likely this person also spent some time in Kararo near Greymouth and it appears he adopted the name of the place he was staying at the time, and had an anglo name for trade with Europeans.
Maybe the history of Mr Te Kamo has been “eroded by colonisation” as local Maori now claim, or maybe his contribution to the wellbeing of Kamo is reinvented hearsay.
Surely, there needs to be some credible substance to historical claims to justify a name change and all of the consequences and costs that flow from it?
Submissions can be made online here >>>
The ten-member Board will make its decision at its next hui in June. Five of the 10 members are of obvious Maori descent.
The Northern Advocate reported on the change here >>>
