Māori names of NZ universities and what they mean

The Māori names of NZ universities are Waipapa Taumata Rau (Auckland), Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato (Waikato), Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa (Massey), Te Herenga Waka (Victoria University of Wellington), Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha (Canterbury), Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki (Lincoln), Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka (Otago) and Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau (AUT). Three of them say, word for word, “the university of” a region or a mountain; the other five were gifted or chosen for a meaning, which each university explains on its own pages. Below are all eight with what the university says, what Te Aka Māori Dictionary says about the words, where the two differ, and how to say each name before you hear it read out at a graduation.

Updated 23 October 2026 · 9 min read

Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Māori examples play Papa Reo, the te reo Māori voice made by Te Hiku Media from recordings of native speakers.

All eight names at a glance

University	Māori name	What the university says	Say it
University of Auckland	Waipapa Taumata Rau	Waipapa, the landing place of waka; taumata rau, many peaks: an exhortation to excellence	Wa-i-pa-pa Ta-u-ma-ta Ra-u
University of Waikato	Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato	not explained; word by word, the university of Waikato	Te Wha-re Wā-na-nga o Wa-i-ka-to
Massey University	Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa	“from inception to infinity”	Te Ku-ne-nga ki Pū-re-hu-ro-a
Victoria University of Wellington	Te Herenga Waka	the name of its marae: “the mooring place of canoes”	Te He-re-nga Wa-ka
University of Canterbury	Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha	not explained; word by word, the university of Canterbury	Te Wha-re Wā-na-nga o Wa-i-ta-ha
Lincoln University	Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki	not explained; word by word, the university of Aoraki, in the southern dialect	Te Wha-re Wā-na-ka o A-o-ra-ki
University of Otago	Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka	“a place of many firsts”, a metaphor, not a literal translation	Ō-tā-ko-u Wha-ka-i-hu Wa-ka
Auckland University of Technology (AUT)	Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau	Auckland, coming together, and deepening knowledge	Te Wā-na-nga A-ro-nu-i o Tā-ma-ki Ma-ka-u Ra-u

In the Say it column every vowel is written as its own beat. In speech some pairs, such as ai and au, glide together, but both vowels are still said. Wh is said like an English f in most of the country, ng as in singer, and a vowel with a macron is held longer: Wānanga has a long first ā. The Māori pronunciation guide explains each sound.

Waipapa Taumata Rau: the Māori name for the University of Auckland

The University of Auckland’s Māori name is Waipapa Taumata Rau, gifted by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. The university announced it on 22 July 2021 and received it at a dawn gifting ceremony on 26 July 2021. It replaced Te Whare Wānanga o Tāmaki Makaurau, which the university calls the “former more literal translation” of its English name.

The university explains the two halves separately. Waipapa “locates us in Auckland”, relating to the nearby shoreline from which the university’s marae, Waipapa Marae, takes its name: “the great landing place of waka”, a place of arrivals, beginnings and new connections, and of an exchange of knowledge and teaching. Taumata Rau is “an exhortation to excellence and achievement”: taumata are the many peaks, “places of challenge, achievement, and revelation”, and rau means many, or a hundred. Te Aka gives taumata ‘summit, top of a hill, resting place, level’ and rau ‘hundred’, and lists taumata rau as a phrase of its own, used of people: remarkable, outstanding.

Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato: the University of Waikato

The University of Waikato gives its Māori name as Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato, and Te Aka lists the same name for it. The pages read for this guide use the name but do not explain it, so here is only what the words mean in Te Aka: whare wānanga ‘university’, o ‘of’, and Waikato, the collective name of the tribes of the Waikato basin and of the river they take their name from.

The university describes a long relationship with the Kīngitanga and Waikato-Tainui. Its Hamilton campus stands on land confiscated in 1864; under the Crown’s 1995 settlement with Waikato-Tainui that land was vested in the title of the first Māori King, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, and is leased to the university. The kings and queens of the Kīngitanga are in the Māori kings and queens.

Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa: Massey’s Māori name

Massey University’s Māori name, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa, was gifted to the university in 1997 by the Māori academic Kahu Stirling, according to Massey’s own Māori history timeline. Massey translates it “from inception to infinity”; its booklet of university waiata says the name “emphasises that the pursuit of learning is an endless journey”. The university even has a waiata named after it, sung to the tune of Blue Smoke.

Two of the three words are in Te Aka: kunenga ‘evolution, development, origin’ and ki ‘to, towards’. Pūrehuroa has no entry of its own: the dictionary has it only inside the university’s name, so its meaning, infinity, rests on Massey’s explanation.

Te Herenga Waka: the Victoria University of Wellington Māori name

Victoria University of Wellington’s Māori name is Te Herenga Waka. “This is also the name of our marae”, the university says, “and means the mooring place of canoes.” It describes the university as a place where people from around the country and beyond can “hitch their canoes” and find shelter, and later unhitch them and sail off, still connected. Te Aka agrees on the words: herenga waka is a place where a canoe is tied up, a mooring.

The marae opened in 1980, the first marae at a New Zealand university, and its carved meeting house, Te Tumu Herenga Waka, opened on 6 December 1986. The university says that house name means “the hitching post of canoes” and was given by Dr Wiremu Parker. The council adopted Te Herenga Waka as the university’s Māori name in 2018, alongside a proposal to drop “Victoria” from the English name. The Education Minister turned the English change down, and noted that his decision did not affect the Māori name.

Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha: Canterbury’s Māori name

The University of Canterbury uses Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha beside its English name throughout its own pages, and Te Aka lists the same. Those pages do not explain it. In Te Aka, Waitaha is Canterbury, and also the name of the tribe that once occupied much of the South Island before Ngāti Māmoe and later Ngāi Tahu. The university names Ngāi Tūāhuriri and Ngāi Tahu as its mana whenua. How Māori names for regions and towns are put together is in Māori place names.

Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki: Lincoln University’s Māori name

Lincoln’s Māori name is Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki, spelt with a k, and Te Aka spells it that way too. The k is the southern dialect: Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou lists “the ‘K’ instead of the ‘Ng’” among the marks of Kāi Tahu reo, so wānaka is the southern form of wānanga, the same word. Aoraki is Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain, in Te Aka, which gives Aorangi as its other form. Lincoln’s pages use the name but do not explain it. The southern k is explained in Māori dialects.

Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka: the Māori name for Otago University

The University of Otago adopted Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka on 1 May 2024, with a new symbol, both created with mana whenua. Its council had decided on the change in July 2023, replacing the earlier te reo name, which 1News reported as Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo. The university says the name “is not a literal translation, but a metaphor meaning, ‘a place of many firsts’”, referring to its achievements and to being New Zealand’s first university. Whakaihu waka, it says, is literally “the bow of the canoe” that cuts through the ocean and leaves a wake for others to follow.

In Te Aka, Ōtākou is the village near the Otago Harbour entrance, still home to Ngāi Tahu, from which the name Otago comes; ihu is a nose, and also the prow or bow of a canoe; waka ‘canoe’. Otago’s page calls the name its ikoa Māori, using the southern k again for ingoa ‘name’.

Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau: AUT’s Māori name

Auckland University of Technology’s Māori name is Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau. AUT explains it in three parts:

Tāmaki Makau Rau “acknowledges our long history and connection to Auckland and its people”;
Wānanga is “the opportunity to come together, persevere, have courageous conversations”, and venture beyond the known horizon;
Aronui refers to deepening knowledge and understanding, and to te kete aronui, one of the three baskets of knowledge.

Te Aka lists the name for AUT, and agrees about the basket: kete aronui is the basket of knowledge acquired through careful observation of the world, sometimes regarded as the basket of the humanities. On its own, aronui means to take notice of, or an inclination. Neither AUT nor Te Aka explains the place name Tāmaki Makau Rau word by word, so this page does not either.

Where the accounts differ

Te Aka records the language as it is used, and some of its entries are older than a university’s current name. Neither side is wrong; they answer different questions.

Point	The university says	Te Aka says
Victoria’s Māori name	Te Herenga Waka, adopted in 2018	its entry for the university still gives Te Whare Wānanga o te Upoko o Te Ika a Māui, from the name for the Wellington area
Otago’s Māori name	Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, since 1 May 2024	its entry for the university gives Te Whare Wānanga o Ōtākou; 1News gave the previous name as Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo
whakaihu	part of “the bow of the canoe”	whakaihu on its own is a headland; ihu is the bow
taumata rau	many peaks, an exhortation to excellence	as a fixed phrase, remarkable or outstanding, said of people
Waipapa	a place name: the shoreline the marae is named after	as an ordinary word, waipapa means to be overgrown, a different word
Pūrehuroa	infinity	no entry outside Massey’s name
Auckland’s Māori name	AUT writes Tāmaki Makau Rau; the University of Auckland’s old name had Tāmaki Makaurau	Auckland is Tāmaki-makau-rau, with hyphens
Awanuiārangi	the institution writes Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi	lists it as Te Wānanga o Awanuiarangi

The words for university, wānanga and school

Word	Meaning (Te Aka)	Say it
whare wānanga	university, place of higher learning; traditionally where tohunga taught history, genealogy and religious knowledge	wha-re wā-na-nga
wānanga	to meet and discuss; a seminar or forum; tribal knowledge, lore; a tertiary institution for Māori learning needs	wā-na-nga
whare	house, building	wha-re
kura	school, education, learning gathering	ku-ra
ako	to learn, study, teach, instruct	a-ko
tauira	student, pupil	ta-u-i-ra
tohu mātauranga	university degree, academic qualification	to-hu mā-ta-u-ra-nga

Ako covers both teaching and learning, and kura is a school at any level; how kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori work is in kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa. Four of the university names above follow the pattern te + noun + o + place, “the university of Waikato”, which is the same pattern as the organisation names in Māori team and business names.

The three wānanga

A wānanga is not a university. Te Aka defines it, in this sense, as a tertiary institution that caters for Māori learning needs, established under the Education Act 1990. There are three: Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, which describes itself as a leading provider of Māori and Indigenous education; Te Wānanga o Raukawa, a kaupapa Māori wānanga in Ōtaki; and Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, an indigenous tertiary provider that Te Aka places in Whakatāne. Their te reo courses are compared in the best way to learn Māori.

Graduation words

Graduating is whakapōtae ‘to cap with a degree, graduate’, and the ceremony is a whakapōtaetanga ‘graduation, capping’; the same verb means to crown. Graduates may wear a korowai with their academic dress, and what the universities say about wearing one is in Māori cloaks and graduation. The words on this page, from whare to waka, are taught in Verbavia’s free te reo Māori course, with every example played in Papa Reo’s native te reo voice.