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No taiko here: it’s takoketai
For many years now we have been using taiko as the Māori name
for the black petrel (Procellaria parkinsoni), a species
with its main colony on Hirakimata/Mount Hobson, the highest
point on Aotea Great Barrier.
Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, we’ve picked up the
wrong name. Taiko is a word used in the south of New Zealand for
other petrels.
Nicola MacDonald of Ngati Rehua Ngatiwai ki Aotea, asked the
gathering to begin using the local Aotea name for black petrel,
which the old people reminded her of recently.
The tika name for our bird is takoketai - let’s bring it back
into use as it should be.
Takoketai on the water in the Hauraki Gulf.
Hirakimata on Aotea
is the main breeding colony for this Nationally Vulnerable
species. |
