Egmont out, Taranaki Maunga in: agreement reached on mountain name change

Monday, 2 December 2019

Since 1986, the mountain has had two names - Mt Egmont and Mt Taranaki - but this will change in 2020. (File Photo)

After more than 30 years with two names, Taranaki's most prominent landmark is about to have only one.

Considered an ancestor by iwi, from next year the mountain will be known only as Taranaki Maunga.

Following an agreement between Ngā Iwi o Taranaki and the Crown as a result of Treaty of Waitangi negotiations related to the mountain, the names Mt Egmont and Egmont National Park will be consigned to the scrap heap.

The national park will instead be known as Te Papakura o Taranaki.

The name changes were first mooted last year by Ngā Iwi o Taranaki lead negotiator Jamie Tuuta when he provided an update on the negotiations, which began in March 2017.

* Mt Taranaki to become legal personality under agreement between iwi and government

* National Portrait: Lance Girling-Butcher - from newspapers to advocacy**

On Sunday, Tuuta confirmed all the names associated with Taranaki Maunga will have Māori names under the new legislation, which is expected to be come into effect next year, Te Ao Māori News reported.

In 1770, British explorer James Cook named the mountain after the Earl of Egmont, a man who never set foot in the region.

In 1986, the New Zealand Geographic Board officially listed the dual names of Mt Egmont and Mt Taranaki as interchangeable ways to refer to the mountain.

There are more than 100 sites of cultural significance to Māori within the national park and the maunga was an important feature in the history and whakapapa of Taranaki's eight iwi groupings.

As part of the settlement, an apology and cultural redress have formed part of the negotiations; however, the deal will not include any financial or commercial recompense.

Taranaki Maunga will also be bestowed with protected legal rights and the Mount Egmont Vesting Act 1978 repealed.

Under that piece of legislation, the mountain was returned to the region by vesting it in the Taranaki Māori Trust Board, after which it was immediately given back to the Government by the board as a 'gift to the nation'.

However, the Waitangi Tribunal, in its watershed 1996 report on Taranaki, said there was little evidence to show there had been agreement from Taranaki hapū to do this.

Hemi Sundgren, of Te Kotahitanga o Te Ātiawa Trust, the entity set up to manage its treaty settlement resources, said the change was about acknowledging their ancestor.

'This has long since been the wishes of our old people since the 1970s. Our elders have wanted to restore our ancestor's name and remove Egmont, return his true identity in his own right.'

On social media, reaction to the news of the pending name change was mixed.

Several commenters on Facebook said they would continue to refer to the mountain as Mt Egmont, as that is how it was referred to when they grew up.

However, others applauded the move, with one posting the comment 'about time'.

Another queried why it was so difficult for people to use the name Taranaki.

'Things change with greater understanding, have you all lost the ability to adapt and learn?,' she asked.