NEW ZEALAND – Captain Cook saw nothing of value in Poverty Bay when he named it in 1769 – but 250 years later that could be about to change.

Nearly 2000 public submissions have been made on the proposal to restore the East Coast’s district’s original Maori name – Turanganui-a-Kiwa.

Turanganui-a-Kiwa is a name with a rich history – it translates to the “long standing place of Kiwa”.

Kiwa was a leading figure aboard a Maori ancestral voyaging canoe which made landfall in the region around 1450AD.

The iwi of Rongowhakaata have always refered to Poverty Bay as Turanganui-a-Kiwa, but would like the name to be officially recognised.

Rongowhakaata Iwi trust chair Moera Brown said the change would honour the original name bestowed by her ancestors.

“We have been fighting for the name change for some time. Kiwa was one of the Tohunga that arrived on the Horouta waka and that was his place that he was standing actually awaiting for the arrival of the waka to come into the bay.

“It was the original name given to the first people that arrived here.”

The Poverty Bay name change debate sparked national attention in 2013 when Kaiti Primary School in Gisborne started a campaign calling for the name to change to Turanganui-a-kiwa.

Its principal, Billie-Jean Potaka Ayton, stands by that position and said the name Poverty Bay does not reflect the area where her tamariki lived.

“For our tamariki, it doesn’t reflect who they are as a people. They feel rich because of their reo, because of who they are, where they come from, their whenua – so there’s no connection there for them.”

Poverty Bay Club Cafe worker Shantelle Sharpes has lived in the area for 27 years and said she would not mind a name change, even if it meant a different look for her cafe.

“Because we’re in the Poverty Bay region I guess our Poverty Bay Club would not be called that anymore.”

It was not a name many people used, she said. “If people ask me where I’m from I normally just say Gisborne.”

The Poverty Bay Club was formally the exclusive meeting place for farmers of the district to meet while on trips to the city.

Other institutions that retain the Poverty Bay title are the Poverty Bay Rugby Union and the Poverty Bay Golf Club.

Not everyone in the community supports the change.

Another local, Jazmyn Walker, said the current name was fine.

“Quite stupid to be honest, changing the name. I lived there all my life and no one’s ever wanted the name change over the past few years, it’s a waste of money.”

Local newspaper letter writer Mike Mulrooney recently wrote: “We have been called Poverty Bay since 1769 by all other than Maori. Everybody knows that poverty is not an adjective to describe our region. It is only a historical word used to describe the area at the time of Cook’s landing. It has stuck ever since and so it should.”

However, there have been many attempts to get the Poverty out the Bay over the years.

Poverty Bay is one of the more fertile areas of New Zealand and famous for its wines, fruit, vegetables and avocados, with abundant sunshine and fertile alluvial soil.

Captain Cook originally named the Bay “Endeavour” after his ship – but angrily struck the name from his ship’s log after fatal encounters with the Maori. In a fit of pique he named the bay “Poverty”, noting, “it afforded us no one thing we wanted”.

To add injury to the insult he sailed around the East Cape and blessed the next large bay, the “Bay of Plenty”.

Many Gisborne people have long believed Cook’s name for the bay, which has gone on to describe the region, has proved very negative.

Gisborne Mayor Meng Foon is determined to restore Poverty Bay to its original Maori name and said many people in the district were ignorant of why Captain James Cook called the area Poverty Bay.

“The name may have been different if Captain Cook had spoken to iwi who were on the beach to greet him instead of shooting them,” Foon said.

“Unfortunately, his sailors drew their guns and killed local iwi chiefs and then obviously he never got any supplies here and then, hence, poverty.”

Submissions on the name change closed today and in the next few months a final decision by the council will be taken to the National Geographic Board.

- PNC sources