Rotorua Boys High School is dumping its 90-year-old house names and creating new ones for the new year as effects of the Black Lives Matter movement wash up here.
The houses were named after four Pākeha 'heroes' - Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, Sir Martin Frobisher, Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh. Nelson won one of Britain's greatest naval battles, only to succumb to his wounds while Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition.
What is less known Is Drake's earlier career working for a slave trader and Nelson's support for the British slave trade. Raleigh set up the first British colony in what became the United States but was also a privateer (a government-licensed [pirate) and was executed for treason while Frobisher, who discovered the North-West passage was also a privateer.
Principal Chris Grinter says that from historical research it is now known that all of these men to some extent were somewhat involved in slavery and the slave trade "and as the world becomes more informed about colonialism its more appropriate for us to reconsider these as house names."
Making it relevant
Grinter says that is aligned "with trying to make school as relevant as we can to the young Māori men of our school," which was important
Incoming deputy principal Rie Morrison says there are some people who would love to keep the original names but the decision has been made and four Māori names will be added next year.
"They were foreigners from England. They were party to acts of slavery during their reign. Our principal did not want our school to be associated with that history."
"Ultimately, our school has focused hard on strengthening our cultural safety due to the large number of Māori students and teachers we have here," Morrison says.
Those new names are: Utuhina, Ngongotahā, Te Rotorua Nui a Kahumatamomoe and Ta Akitua Raukura.
"All four names are mentioned in the school motto, so it was important to acknowledge Ngāti Whakaue and celebrate the connection that we have with the local iwi," she says.