What's in a name? How we corrected a school name from Tiritea to Turitea after 122 years.

What's in a name? That's the title a new article Dr Christina Severinsen, Rochelle Hutson and I have had recently published in the New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies on 13 August 2020. It's about the process and experience a small country school in the Rangitāne rohe of Manawatū went through to correct its name from Tiritea to Turitea. That change, as it turns out, took 122 years, around five generations to rectify. I am grateful to have been there when the correction was completed as the whānau representative on the board of trustees, and to have had my tamariki attend the school for the history-making shift. It was a brave move on the part of the board and I commend the trustees, led by Dr Chrissy Severinsen at the time, and principal Glenys Murphy, for doing so.

When going to collect my kids, I would often say to fellow parents "I wish I had gone to a primary school like Turitea." The kids just didn't seem to want to leave after the school bell sounded at the end of the day. Turitea is a beautiful little country school with a proud history of serving the mainly farming, military, Massey and Māori and non-Māori families in the district. Nestled at the crest of a gully on Old West Road, surrounded by Massey-owned and privately-owned farms, it started life as a one-room schoolhouse (which is still in use at the school) in 1895. It now caters to around 150 primary school kids.

Due to an administrative error in council records in the 1880s, the land between where Turitea School stands was misspelled as Tiritea, which became the name for the stream, road and district. When the school was established, it adopted Tiritea as the school's name. This remained the case until 1990 when Palmerston North City Council wanted to extend Bledisloe Park walking track and consulted Rangitāne about this. Rangitāne reminded council the name of the area, Tiritea, was incorrect, it had no meaning in Māori; that Turitea was the correct name, meaning clear, bright water. Council accepted this and supported a change to the name of the area in a proposal to the New Zealand Geographic Board. The board agreed. However, Tiritea School did not wish to change its name at the time, apparently for historical reasons. In denying the change, the school was denying the impact of the misspelling on the Rangitāne people, who like most iwi, had endured and sacrificed much to provide for the formation of our provincial towns and cities.

When the idea of a correcting the name was raised at a whānau hui, it made complete sense to whānau present. It was culturally appropriate, fair and just given what was already happening with treaty settlements to right past wrongs, and it was consistent with the school's stated commitment to incorporating te ao Māori, tikanga, te reo and the Treaty of Waitangi into the school. Yet, there was apprehension, doubt, fear and dissension, that the change might override and unwrite the school's history, cause racial division and tension, and privilege a Māori world view over a Pākehā world view. Knowing all this, the board still proceeded with a plan for the change. The board instituted a narrative that characterised the change as a 'correction' rather than a 'change' to allay fears that the process might amount to a wholesale rewriting of the school's identity and history. Clearly, it did not and could not, but fear is a powerful and irregular emotion, which as we now know from a proud and rather boastful overseas political 'force of nature', supersedes rationality, justice, logic and fact.

Well, it wasn't that bad, but we had folk who were ill-at ease with the prospect. To address this, we developed a process of wide engagement and consultation on the name correction, talking with and hearing from tangata whenua, generations of former students, local farmers, historians, kaumātua, parents and children. The school initiated a learning inquiry called 'What's in a name?' which allowed classes at the different age-levels to examine the origin and meanings of names of people, places and things and of the school's name.

One of the class-based activities that had potential to derail the process was the decision to allow students to vote on whether the school's name should be changed. While voting is a natural choice of weighting options in democratic processes, its was unhelpful and inappropriate without adequate context and explanation, so such choices were informed by what was right, not just who was right. Classroom voting was suddenly also being played out at home as children relayed to parents what they were learning in class. We had just lost control of the process and needed a way to reacquire it in a respectful and sensible manner. We did this through focus groups with parents, sharing information in newsletters about the change, information sessions at school, and inviting parents and community to contribute. This achieved the goal of allowing the decision to be resolved on equitable, moral and cultural grounds rather than by majority-rules.

At the start of the new year following the board's decision to approve the name correction, we had a pohiri for whānau and community to usher in the historical event. A kahikatea tree was donated and planted by the school, and a plaque attached to a very sturdy fence post from the original school grounds to commemorate the correction, was put in the ground by Carl Severinsen and I, two of the dads with whānau at the school one Saturday afternoon.

Well that's a little about how Tiritea School travelled 'back to the future' and became Turitea School. Here's the abstract from the article:

This is a reflective account of an inquiry learning process that took place as a small country school corrected its name from Tiritea to Turitea. We discuss the process as an example of how boards in mainstream schools can work collaboratively to uphold te ao Māori (the Māori world) in schools and to recognise obligations under the Te Tiriti o Waitangi. School Boards of Trustees set the strategic direction to ensure that Māori students achieve educational success as Māori. The name correction demon? strated the school’s willingness to embrace te ao Māori, and to build a closer relationship with tāngata whenua to enrich students’ learning and success. The inquiry learning process carried out brought to light existing and new knowledge from all participants, and aligned well with the school goal of providing an environment where students are encouraged to think critically, creatively and refectively. We use the Tātaiako competency framework to discuss various elements of the process: ako, wānanga, manaakitanga, tāngata whenuatanga and whanaungatanga.

To read the full article though, you'll have to become a student at Massey so you can download it for free from the Massey library. We have plenty of beautiful courses for you to come study at Massey Business School, including Māori management and Māori business. Haramai, mauria mai te whānau - Online Open Days are 4-5 September 2020.

Mauri ora ki ā tātau

Dr Jason Paul Mika