Finding our name

Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People are the first two parts to our name in our three parts to one name journey. Learn about how we got there.

Our journey to one name

When Cabinet agreed to establish the new Ministry in October 2021, they gave the Minister for Disability Issues, Minister for the Public Service and Minister of Health authority to determine its final name.

Officials and disabled people who first discussed how to create the name agreed it should include te reo Māori, English and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). This would make the new Ministry the first government department to have a name with all three languages.

The Establishment Unit, the Community Steering Group and Governance Group worked closely together to ensure the new Ministry’s name is one the community and the staff of the Ministry will be proud of.

There is a story to each part of the name.

Te reo Māori part of our name

The word 'Whaikaha' is closely associated with Maaka Tibble, a Ngāti Porou kaumatua, who has worked in the disability world for decades, including as a founding member of the Māori Disability Leadership Group.

Maaka Tibble is also blind, and in 2015 he found himself thinking that he was never comfortable with the word disability. Te reo Māori words like kāpō (blind), turi (deaf) and hauā (disabled) were also used to describe disabled people and he found all these words focused on deficiencies. This challenged him.

Maaka Tibble talks about being inspired by the words of Nelson Mandela, "how can we turn disability into ability, disharmony to harmony and disadvantage to advantage". He also talks about the influence of Sir Mason Durie, who had coined the term 'Whaiora', to mean to have wellbeing.

This led Maaka Tibble to suggest 'Whaikaha' or 'Tāngata Whaikaha', which are based on disabled people's strengths.

In 2016, as a founding member of the Māori Disability Leadership Group, Maaka Tibble is quoted saying "Tāngata Whaikaha means people who are determined to do well, or is certainly a goal that they reach for. It fits nicely with the goals and aims of people with disabilities who are determined in some way to do well and create opportunities for themselves as opposed to being labelled, as in the past."

Over time 'whaikaha' has become more and more widely used, and many in the disability world now claim this enabling word to describe themselves.

Engagement was key to our process to find the reo Māori part of the Ministry's name. Engagement included groups in the disabled community, Iwi chairs, and the wider community.

Input and ideas were discussed, including the importance of the name having meaning for the whole disabled community, being easy to pronounce, and reflecting a positive view of disability. This journey quickly led to the word 'Whaikaha'. Maaka Tibble was happy for Whaikaha be used in the Ministry’s name – provided that it was "at the top of the letterhead".

Our steering and governance groups enthusiastically endorsed 'Whaikaha' as the reo Māori part of the name, and in line with Maaka Tibble's wish for it to be at the top of the letterhead, strongly agreed that it be the first part of the Ministry’s name.

English part of our name

Back in March 2022, we worked with All is for All, a communications agency led by disabled people, to develop AmplifyU external URL as an online way to connect with and hear from disabled people. We used this to hear from disabled people about what they wanted the English part of the Ministry’s name to be. We also discussed the name with disabled people in other ways.

Many people thought it important the name clearly said what the ministry was about, so they wanted ‘disabled people’ to be part of the name. People also wanted it to show that disabled people would be leaders and partners in the new ministry, rather than it being ‘for’ disabled people. So they wanted it to be Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People.

New Zealand Sign Language part of our name

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