Marlborough’s deputy mayor has offered to pick up and drop off anyone struggling to find Te Kahu o Waipuna.
The new name for the Blenheim library and art gallery building was unveiled at a ceremony in June. The name, gifted by Marlborough iwi, means the protective cloak of Waipuna.
But commenters on social media shortly after the unveiling were quick to discuss the absence of English signs on the $20m building in central Blenheim.
Blenheim ward councillor Deborah Dalliessi brought it up at a planning and finance meeting on Tuesday, as the council was reviewing an information package discussing the latest library report.
“[I’m] just relaying some feedback from the community, around the signage ... yet again, that they want bilingual [signs].”
Dalliessi said she had fielded comments from people wanting to see “library and art gallery” written in English on the building.
“I may have missed this while I was away. Has there been other feedback?”
Dalliessi had recently returned from overseas, where she had been since before the sign was unveiled in June.
Signs had been added to the doorways of the building since the name was unveiled, which said “Marlborough Library” in English underneath the te reo Māori name, along with opening hours.
Planning and Finance committee chairperson Jamie Arbuckle said there had been some discussion in a council workshop – but it was not actually “workshopped”.
“It was just commented by a councillor, and some discussion around it,” he said.
Dalliessi clarified she was just reiterating what people had said to her, not her own views. She said there were particular concerns that tourists would not be able to find the building.
Wairau-Awatere ward councillor Gerald Hope said he thought the discussion around signs was only in “isolated pockets” of the community, and on social media.
“I think I used the analogy of Te Papa. How long has it been there? Do we know what it is?” Hope said.
“So given time, people will know Te Kahu (o Waipuna), it’s simple.”
Blenheim ward councillor Matt Flight said if people searched for “Marlborough library” online, Google Maps took them to the right place.
“And that’s where most of the tourists that come to the Marlborough region will tend to look.”
Deputy mayor David Croad offered to help anyone still having trouble finding the building.
“I was just going to say, if anyone is struggling to find it, give us a call, I’ll pick them up and drop them off.”
Māori ward councillor Allanah Burgess, of Te Ātiawa and Ngāi Tahu, did not comment during Tuesday’s meeting. Speaking afterwards, Burgess said she did not want to waste any more “breath or energy” on the matter.
Burgess said, since the unveiling, she could not attend a public meeting without at least one member of the public asking about the signage.
“My response is, there is a name on the library,” she said.
“The building is named Te Kahu o Waipuna, and if you don’t know that’s a library, then there’s something seriously wrong.”
Marlborough should be celebrating the name, she said.
A kahu was a traditional cloak, and in the context of the new building denoted a metaphor for the embracing of people.
Waipuna had multiple meanings, one being springwater, which referenced the puna that rose northwest of Blenheim and fed the Taylor River, which flowed beside the new building.
Waipuna was also the ancestral mother of the Rangitāne iwi, whose descendants built pā and gardens alongside the waterways, around which Blenheim was built.
“I was a wee bit taken aback about the idea of possibly workshopping it,” Burgess said.
“My thinking is, we’re all really busy people, and if we’re taking a day out to workshop a building that already has a beautiful name, with meaning, what outcome are we trying to look for here?”
“I don’t think we should be going backwards to try and appease all these other people in Marlborough that can’t accept change.”
