St John is the latest organisation to adopt a Māori name.

The charity has rebranded and is encouraging the media and public to refer to it as Hato Hone St John.

A branch of the St John Ambulance was first founded in Christchurch on 30 April 1885.

Hato Hone St John Chief Executive Peter Bradley said “Hato Hone St John is proud to uphold te Reo Māori in our name, as an official language of Aotearoa.

Over the past few years, we have been gradually adopting ‘Hato Hone’ in our name and logo. In fact, ‘Hato Hone’ has been written on the side of ambulance operations vehicles for around three years and in our email signatures.

The Hato Hone St John logo has been in use across our website and social media channels for a year and the name and logo appears on many of our fleet, buildings and communication channels along with the Māori design elements that represent all who call Aotearoa home. It is all part of a bigger piece of mahi that complements the launch of our Manaaki Ora strategy this year.”

Bradley said “Embracing our bicultural identity is part of our commitment to align our objectives and obligations as a health organisation to Te Tiriti ō Waitangi and to better connect with our communities in Aotearoa.”

 He said the name was not gifted by iwi – it is a literal translation of Saint John to Hato Hone.

“This has been guided by Hato Hone St John Kāhui Mauaka Maori Responsiveness Team, in consultation with iwi.

It is not a formal name change but it is a shift to fully incorporate the translation of our name. In our journey to incorporating Hato Hone St John, our organisation has followed best practice set out by Te Puni Kōkiri Ministry of Māori Development Māori-English Bilingual Signage guidelines, which states that putting te Reo Māori first, and of equal weighting, is really important when authentically adopting bi-lingual signage and logos.”

 Bradley said the organisation was not retrospectively applying the new logo to existing buildings, vehicles, uniforms or materials.

“The name and logo will be applied to new items only. So effectively it has been a cost-neutral exercise for St John.”