Talk:Styx River (Canterbury)

Maori name
I've created a page for the Styx River in Canterbury. I've got two different Maori names for it, though. The Styx website has a bilingual title, implying that Pūrākaunui is the Maori name (but it doesn't say this specifically anywhere on the otherwise very comprehensive website). The other name comes from the CCC library website. Who can shed some light onto this? Schwede66 (talk) 22:03, 24 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Tena koutou katoa, My name is Ben Te Aika. I am the Chairperson of Te Hapu o Kati Hurihia. We are the Hapu of the area including the river now known as the Styx.


 * Our Hapu have held mana whenua in this place for hundereds of years. I would like to say that both names given in the refered to sources are factualy incorrect. This has arisen due to poor research and many years of continued failure by the local council to work with our hapu. This is slowly changing for the better.


 * The correct name for the river is Puharakekenui. This is also the name of the Maori Reservation near the river in its lower reaches. Other names also are given for specific portions of the river which reflect the traditional practices associated with it. Purakanui is a name which arose from a misspelling of a european in the late 1800s and Otukaikino arose from poor research relating to a swamp which was once a bend in the south branch of the river Waimakariri (now a single bed). This swamp is many kilometres away and has no been part of the Puharakekenui catchment as claimed by the researcher at the time.The Styx website refered to arises from the same CCC project as the information on the CCC library.


 * I hope to add to wikipidia when I have some spare time.   — Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.55.97.194 (talk) 04:23, 12 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Tena koe, Ben. It's great to see that you provide some factual correction here. You appear to be new to Wikipedia, so there's a few things to learn how it all works. I'd be most willing to mentor you, as there are a lot of pitfalls along the way. It would be useful if you were to sign up for a user account, as there's then an effective mechanism of communicating with one another. I have the Styx article watchlisted (in fact, I once set it up in the first place), so if you work on it or post some message on its talk page, my attention will be drawn to it. Meanwhile, welcome to Wikipedia.  Schwede 66  10:01, 14 September 2011 (UTC)