Talk:Whitianga

Section blanking? (Controversies)
Wow, a lot of section blanking going on in this article, about some pretty serious issues at the local school. Maybe someone could just put more positive facts about the school in as balance and leave the "Controversies" section in there, maybe in a shorter form? CoronaryKea (talk) 10:45, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

'meaning'
The word 'whitianga' is nowhere in maori dictionnaries, even less associated with a meaning of 'crossing place'. So this translation whose origin I don't know is a construction that should be taken with a piece of salt... 'whitianga' can be rather seen as built on 'whiti'+'anga' One of the meaning of 'whiti' is certainly to 'cross' a river or a sea, but another meaning is 'rising', especially the rising of the sun, hence the EAST. 'anga' has different meanings, but one is: facing, aspect. Of course, Whitianga is located on an eastern coast. I remark this place name also exist in tahitian, under the avatar: Hitia'a. This was already noticed by Percy Smith (http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz//tm/scholarly/tei-SmiHawa-t1-body-d7-d12.html). In Tahiti this place (on the East coast of the island)is clearly associated with the sunrise, and it's complete name is Hitia'a o te Ra (rising of the sun). So my translation for Whitianga O Kupe would be: (the place where) Kupe was facing east OR rather Kupe's (favorite place) FACING EAST... (see https://kn0l.wordpress.com/te-reo-maori-la-langue-maorie) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 163.47.106.9 (talk) 19:48, 30 December 2016 (UTC)