Controversy in New Zealand over use of indigenous name for country

The speaker of New Zealand's parliament said today he would not accept complaints from other lawmakers about the use of the Maori name Aotearoa for New Zealand, after controversy erupted over the use of the indigenous name for the country.

"The name Aotearoa is regularly used as the name for New Zealand," Speaker Gerry Brownlee said in Parliament in Wellington. "It appears on passports and on our currency."

The row erupted last month when Ricardo Menendez March, of the left-wing Green party, used the name Aotearoa in parliament during questions to ministers. The word means "land of the long white cloud" in the Maori language.

Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs and leader of the populist New Zealand First party, protested this.

"Why is someone who came to this country in 2006 allowed to change the name of the country without the decision of the people of New Zealand," he asked.

Menendez March was born in Mexico and is a citizen of New Zealand.

Peters asked Brownlee to ban the use of the term Aotearoa in parliament.

Brownlee said today that lawmakers are allowed to address parliament in any of New Zealand's three official languages, English, Maori and New Zealand Sign Language.

"That's really the end of things," he said.

Brownlee had previously asked Menendez March to use the term "Aotearoa New Zealand" for the country, "to help those who may not understand the term," but said he would not require him to do so. Other lawmakers have previously referred to New Zealand by its Maori name, Aotearoa.

Peters told reporters that Brownlee had "made a mistake" and would not answer questions that referred to New Zealand as Aotearoa. Menendez March had no comment.

Peters, who is New Zealand's longest-serving MP, has previously been condemned for remarks about Asian migrants. Peters, who is Maori himself, opposes initiatives aimed at preserving the Maori people and language.

The Maori language is increasingly popular in New Zealand.

The Maori, who make up about 20 percent of New Zealand's population, were long discouraged from speaking the language after British colonization, and at one point it was believed that it would become completely extinct in the 21st century.

Words like Aotearoa are now part of everyday conversation in New Zealand, even for non-Maori. Some support an official change to the country's name, which was first used by Dutch cartographers.

Opponents say that before colonization, the Maori did not have an official name for the whole of New Zealand and that Aotearoa was the name used only for the North Island of the country.

Also, this is not the first time that Peters and his party have been embroiled in controversy along with Menendez March.

In January, the Green Party complained to Brownlee after Peters' deputy Shane Jones made a slur during a parliamentary debate about Mexicans, while Peters told two other Green MPs who had emigrated to New Zealand that they should "show gratitude" to the country.

Menendez March condemned the statements as "racist and xenophobic."