Why the name change?
As an organisation all about solving problems and managing well, we recently underwent our own identity crisis, of sorts. In a spirit of transparency and learning I want to share what happened here.
As we established our company earlier this year, we went looking for inspiration for a name. We explored lots of options. And attracted to the meaning and the conceptual framing of the premise of Teo Ao Marama, selected Mārama as our name.
In discussion with others, although accountability is expressly mine, I thought that it reflected a conceptual world view of our regional positioning and Māori and Polynesian context and was sufficiently common in usage, that as Pakeha born in Aotearoa, it’s use was not problematic.
Only it was problematic. Very.
I accept the critique of others. That this was appropriation. This critique is both absolutely accepted and sincerely regretted. I am sorry for the harm caused and I am deeply grateful to the care, knowledge and accountability of those who made it clear to me that it was not an acceptable choice. When we know better, we do better. In this case I strongly feel that I ought to have known better.
As in all other crisis, it’s the next steps that matter. For us this has meant taking the following actions promptly.
It is important to us to acknowledge exactly specific nature of the harm. In this case it was the appropriation of language, a cultural asset that was not ours. An offense to those to whose cultural estate it belongs. An action that, notwithstanding I gave it careful consideration, came from a place of entitlement (whiteness). A position that allowed me to delegitimise ownership and knowledge. Demonstrating an indifference to the meanings unknown to me. An obvious misuse.
Expressing my deep appreciation for the care, effort, scholarship, political and emotional labour required to make the effort to bring these transgressions to my attention. To those who did, thank you. I sincerely value your effort, friendship, honesty and expectation of accountability. Be assured we are reflecting deeply on how we got to here.
The importance of addressing the wrong. In our case this has meant a change of name and all the legal, technical and related creative and collateral changes that necessitates. A process that we have started and are working through to ensure its completeness. We will adopt a new name that more intentionally reflects our own Whakapapa as Celtic settlers across now two continents.
And finally, reparation. Morgain Group will make contribution to a relevant Te Reo Māori organisation in Australia to build our own and support others understanding of the propriety nature of language, culture and connection.
This experience has been a powerful reminder of how organisations get into trouble and the way in which our ability to realise and respond is so influenced by privilege power, feeling perception and bias. Investment, sentimentality and inadequate risk analysis all contribute to making mistakes. Some hiding in plain sight.
This experience has been a powerful learning. A reminder that no matter how skilled you think you are, blind spots are real and can be significant. I apologise unreservedly to anyone who has been offended by my mistake.
Lyn Morgain
March 2026