The Maori have great names. Like Native American naming, they are often poetically symbolic. Huingangutu is a teacher who is greatly respected by her people. She wears the moko, a traditional chin tattoo you don’t see so much on today’s young Maori women. I had one painted on my chin in Rotorua, and I can tell you this is just not meant for a pakeha (white person)…very foreign indeed.

I asked Huingangutu what her name meant, and she thought for a bit how to translate it for this pakeha…then told me that it means “a gathering of people discussing something meaningful.”  That just blew me away.  I love that.

The children at the school I was visiting had beautiful, angled golden faces and thick, island hair.  I did not learn what “Kaikohe” meant, much to my chagrin, but I did understand that it meant “I own this paint.”

I think my favorite Maori name is Ngawaiatu…it means “more than one song.”  I love everything about that.