346-1Te-Ika-a-Maui Tangata Whenua Place Names Map (North Island New Zealand)

Tangata whenua place names of Aotearoa New Zealand pre European settlement.

Maps of Te Waipounamu and Te Ika-a-Maui
The second editions 2023

The second edition maps improved on the first edition with corrections, original names restored as cultural redress through Treaty of Waitangi settlements, and names resulting from direct consultation with iwi and hapu. For Te Waipounamu, names were comprehensively reassessed after Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu’s decades of additional research on its cultural heritage, published in its online cultural heritage atlas Ka Huru Manu.

Ka Huru Manu

For the most part the correct standardised orthography for place names is used, as confirmed with a licensed translator, Te Haumihiata Mason. However, for some names this was not possible where the korero of the name was not known. Treaty settlement place names are shown as legislated. Korero in the index was gathered from tangata whenua, authoritative resources, or carried down from the first edition.

The maps are digital products built from layers of geographic information. The landscape is mostly derived from Toitu Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand’s topographic maps.

Starting with modern accurate data, the clock was wound back on some of the more notable changes in the landscape over the past two centuries. These include land reclamations, river diversions, the construction of numerous hydro-electrical dams, or natural events such as the uplift of Te Whanganui-a-Orotu in the 1931 Napier earthquake. Some of the place names are for features and places that no longer exist.

Roger Smith at Geographx Ltd showed the vegetation coverage based on work for The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa on pre-1840 maps, and this was supplemented by other sources. The changes are approximate at 1:1 million scale, and are not complete but are representative.

Artwork for the map and the overall design is by Ariki Creative.

Format: Map
Imprint: Land Information NZ