Maori navigated vast distances to settle here in Aotearoa up to 1000 years ago.

They brought their language, customs, spirituality and music.

They fought and died in two world wars for this country with bravery and commitment.

We Pakeha can only, and will always be, the second indigenous culture to arrive in Aotearoa.

Just over 100 years ago there was talk that the Maori race could become extinct such was the damage wrought by the greed and destruction of the incoming "settlers".

These arrogant arrivals from the other side of the world were in some cases criminal in their behaviour and we were taught in school that these men were the heroes of early New Zealand history. Bollocks!

So I will be delighted to see a name in the language of the first people that names the country I love.

Aotearoa/New Zealand will suffice for the time being.

I will always say though, that the Maori have a moral right to name this land not Abel Tasman who did not even land here much less live here and he happened on Aotearoa hundreds of years later after the Maori had made the land their forever home.

J Sage, Tauranga