Dunedin (New Zealand): Jacinda Ardern has put a tiny farming community in rural New Zealand on the map by naming her baby after the town.
The community of Te Aroha welcomed the prime minister’s choice with open arms, declaring they would “paint the town pink” in her honour and praising her work to improve relations with Mori people.
On Sunday, Ardern and her partner, Clarke Gayford, emerged from Auckland hospital to announce their baby girl would be called Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford . The second name is taken from the mountain and town, which means “love” in the Te Reo Mori language.
Across the country, New Zealanders described the choice as “romantic”, “beautiful” and “culturally significant” but it carried a more particular meaning for the town that is home to just over 3,900 people and lies 21km (13 miles) from Ardern’s birthplace of Morrinsville in the dairy-rich Waikato district.
Te Ao Marama Maaka, a spokeswoman for Ngati-Haua, of the Tainui federation of tribes in the Te Aroha area, said she had been very close to Ardern since meeting her at Morrinsville high school, and that the prime minister’s empathy with and interest in the indigenous people of New Zealand was improving relations between Pakeha [European] and Mori faster than at any other point in history.
Maaka said: “Te Aroha means a lot of love, because this baby has the love of the people throughout the country. I was really really happy. When Jacinda visited our tribe, that was our moment with her. But this name will now bind us forever.
“They are a Pakeha couple but Jacinda has visited my marae [meeting house], we have welcomed her here as the prime minister and she has always acknowledged my people. In her young years she has done a lot of homework on the history of Mori.”
The depth of goodwill has led to locals inviting Ardern to take part in the traditional Mori practice of burying the afterbirth in the earth of Te Aroha, a ceremony that signifies the new child’s ancestral roots and connection to the land.
Maaka said: “The afterbirth, we always take it back to our ancestral home. So I am hoping that she will bring the afterbirth back to Te Aroha because that’s where the name of the baby has come from.” Ardern has not yet responded to the offer.
Ardern has previously said she and Gayford settled on their child’s name quite early. “Te Aroha was our way of reflecting the amount of love that this baby has been shown before she even arrived,” she said.
“I thought, how do we reflect all of the generosity, particularly of all the Iwi [Mori tribes] who gifted us names? And Te Aroha seemed to be a way to show that love and generosity.
“It is also the place where all my family is from, and I grew up under that mountain.”
Jan Barnes, the mayor of Matamata-Piako district council said the rural town was “ecstatic” about the prime minister’s choice, and hoped to see Ardern walking the streets with Neve in a pram soon.
The council is holding a meeting on Wednesday to discuss how to celebrate the baby’s name, with draft plans including repainting much of the town pink, (including freshening up the already pink Coulter Bridge), commissioning a statue of Te Aroha mountain - known as “the mountain of love” - engraved with her full name and birthday, and tying a gigantic pink bow around Te Aroha’s clock tower.
“The community looks out for each other here - it does take a village to raise a child, and we are so proud little Neve has Te Aroha in her name and to look after her,” said Barnes. “Iwi [Mori tribes] feel particularly honoured] by the prime minister’s choice.”
