The campaign also calls on the House of Representatives to restore the Maori names of all towns, cities and place names, according to a statement announcing the petition on Tuesday.
“The time has passed since Te Reo Māori was restored to its rightful and official language in this country. We are a Polynesian country, we are Aotearoa,” the statement said, calling for the process to be completed. name change in 2026.
“The Tangata Whenua are about to die so that our ancestral names are mistreated, bastardized and ignored. It is the 21st century, that must change,” it reads. Tangata whenua means “people of the land”, but is used to refer to the Maori people in general.
The fluency of the Maori language fell from 90% in 1910 to 26% in 1950, according to the statement.
“In just 40 years, the Crown has managed to strip us of our language successfully and we still feel the impact of it,” the party said.
Today only 3% of people living in the country can speak the language, he added.
“It is the duty of the Crown to do everything possible to restore the status of our language,” the statement continues.
“That means it has to be accessible in the most obvious places; on our TVs, on our radio stations, on road signs, on maps and official advertising, and on our education system.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has not publicly commented on the petition, but has already provoked opposition from right-wing ACT leader David Seymour.
In September 2020, Ardern said it was “a positive thing” for Aotearoa to be used more and more indiscriminately with New Zealand.
But he said an official name change “is not something we have explored.”