The Māori Party is pushing to change New Zealand's official name to Aotearoa, reflecting its Māori heritage.

New Zealand’s Māori Party has initiated a petition to officially rename the country as Aotearoa, the term used in the Māori language for the nation.

The petition also urges the House of Representatives to reinstate Māori names for all towns, cities, and landmarks, according to an announcement made on Tuesday.

“It is long overdue for Te Reo Māori to be reinstated as the country’s primary and official language. As a Polynesian nation, we should be Aotearoa,” the statement declares, calling for the renaming to be completed by 2026.

“The Māori people are frustrated with our ancestral names being distorted, disrespected, and overlooked. It’s the 21st century; this must change,” the statement continues. Tangata whenua, meaning “people of the land,” refers to the Māori people as a whole.

The fluency of the Māori language declined from 90% in 1910 to just 26% by 1950, as stated in the report.

“In a mere 40 years, the Crown successfully stripped us of our language, and we are still grappling with the consequences of this today,” said the Māori Party.

The statement added that only 3% of the current population in New Zealand is able to speak Māori.

“It is the Crown’s responsibility to take all necessary steps to restore the prominence of our language,” the statement continues.

“This means Māori should be present in the most visible spaces: on television, radio, road signs, maps, public advertisements, and throughout the education system.”

On Tuesday, the Māori Party tweeted that their petition had garnered 12,000 signatures. “This is HUGE,” the tweet stated.

New Zealand's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has not yet publicly addressed the petition, though it has already faced criticism from David Seymour, leader of the right-wing ACT Party.

“People are already free to use Māori place names,” tweeted Seymour. “What the Māori Party is proposing is a ban on calling our country New Zealand.”

In September 2020, Ardern called it a “positive development” that Aotearoa is being used more frequently alongside New Zealand.

However, she added that an official name change was “not something we’ve considered.”