The Whakatāne District Council has delayed a decision to adopt ‘Wharaurangi’ as the name for 136 The Strand – the new pedestrian plaza which forms a visual and physical link between Whakatāne’s escarpment, CBD, riverside area and the coast.

At yesterday’s Council meeting, several Councillors expressed concern about the naming process, and a Projects and Services Committee resolution was amended to allow time for community feedback to be considered. The Council is now asking for comments via its Facebook page.

The original resolution followed information presented at last week’s committee meeting, where Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa Chief Executive, Enid Ratahi-Pryor, explained that the historical context of the area stretched back to the renowned ancestor Toi-kai-rakau. Acknowledged as the progenitor of many North Island iwi, Toi made landfall at Kakahoroa (the original name for Whakatāne) and established a Pā atop Kōhī Point. His son Awanuiarangi was the founding ancestor of the Ngāti Awa iwi.

Toi named the area Wharaurangi to acknowledge the importance of the navigational stars Tawera (Venus), Atutahi-ma-Rehua (Canopus) and Te Pae o Mahutonga (the Southern Cross) in guiding voyagers across the Pacific Ocean.

Oral history records that Wharaurangi was the place where war and peace were discussed and where the chiefs of Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Pūkeko met with Crown representative James Fedarb to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, on 16 June 1840.