Sunday September 21, 2025
News:
Sky Sports commentators are being trained and asked to speak more te reo on air
Sky TV’s head of Māori Strategy, Kirstin Te Wao-Edmonds, said the broadcaster has a “mission to normalise te reo in mainstream sports broadcasting”.
Rugby commentators have long opened their commentaries with the classic “kia ora” but that was just the start, said Te Wao-Edmonds (Te Arawa, Waikato-Tainui, Samoa) who joined Sky in 2022.
“We’re investing in building the capability and confidence of our Sky Sport talent in using te reo in our English language broadcasts,” she told the Herald.....
See full article HERE
ECan reaffirms support for mana whenua
At a meeting on Wednesday, Environment Canterbury (ECan) passed three motions moved by Ngāi Tahu councillor Tutehounuku Korako and approved a new Tuia partnership agreement with Papatipu Rūnanga ki Waitaha.
“This council has made a courageous decision by passing these three motions,” Korako said.
“It shows this council honours its Tuia agreement. This council doesn’t just talk about partnership, it acts on it.”
The motions included continuing to publicly oppose the Government’s proposed legislation to amend the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011, which could impede customary marine title.
The other two motions related to environmental impacts on the Whakaraupō / Lyttelton Harbour.
The new Tuia partnership agreement outlines how ECan will work together with the 10 Papatipu Rūnanga across Canterbury......
See full article HERE
Articles:
Matua Kahurangi: Māori want to talk about genocide
Propaganda:
Air NZ marks milestone with te reo Māori commercial flight
The role of business in preserving te reo Māori
See full article HERE
ECan reaffirms support for mana whenua
At a meeting on Wednesday, Environment Canterbury (ECan) passed three motions moved by Ngāi Tahu councillor Tutehounuku Korako and approved a new Tuia partnership agreement with Papatipu Rūnanga ki Waitaha.
“This council has made a courageous decision by passing these three motions,” Korako said.
“It shows this council honours its Tuia agreement. This council doesn’t just talk about partnership, it acts on it.”
The motions included continuing to publicly oppose the Government’s proposed legislation to amend the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011, which could impede customary marine title.
The other two motions related to environmental impacts on the Whakaraupō / Lyttelton Harbour.
The new Tuia partnership agreement outlines how ECan will work together with the 10 Papatipu Rūnanga across Canterbury......
See full article HERE
Articles:
Matua Kahurangi: Māori want to talk about genocide
Propaganda:
Air NZ marks milestone with te reo Māori commercial flight
The role of business in preserving te reo Māori
This Breaking Views Update monitors race relations in the media on a weekly basis. New material is added regularly. If you would like to send Letters to the Editor in response to any of these articles, most media addresses can be found HERE.
4 comments:
"Sky Sports commentators are being trained and asked to speak more te reo on air". Bye bye sky sports. I don't do te reo.
Sky’s “head of Māori engagement” Te Wao-Edmonds talks about a groundswell of demand for more te reo rugby commentary — yet not once is she asked to quantify it. Which teams? Which clubs? How many? Is it grassroots or elite? Full Māori coverage or just bilingual greetings? The answers never come — because the questions are never asked.
That’s doubly glaring because the reporter, Joseph Los’e, isn’t a rookie. By his own bio he’s been chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News, editor of the NZ Truth and now NZME’s “Kaupapa Māori Editor.” With that pedigree he knows the basics of interrogating a claim — yet this reads like a Sky press release.
We’re told Sky already runs “side-by-side commentaries” in both languages. Again, no figures. How many people actually choose the te reo feed? How long do they stay? What’s the viewership for Super Rugby, the All Blacks or the Women’s Rugby World Cup in te reo? No numbers, just slogans.
And the article simply repeats her line that critics are a “minority” without producing a shred of evidence. Basic journalism would check survey data, viewership figures or subscriber polls — not print a spokesperson’s assertion as fact.
The vague cultural spin also goes untested. We’re told te reo is a “powerful tool for oratory,” and that specialist commentators are “understanding the culture that accompanies the language.” But what culture exactly? How is it measured? What does it add to the viewer’s understanding of tactics, scrums, line-outs or player positioning? There’s no sign the reporter asked how many technical rugby terms even exist in te reo or how they’re being coined. Instead, the copy reads like one of Takuta Ferris’s cultural-wellness press releases — all warm affirmations, no hard numbers.
And then, as if on cue, the article meanders into Tony Johnson’s fond memories of a First XV coach and name pronunciation — an entirely irrelevant diversion from the real issue. Nobody disputes the value of saying names correctly. But it’s a safe, sentimental cul-de-sac that lets both Sky and the reporter avoid the tougher questions: who’s watching, what’s the uptake, and whether a te reo commentary can actually handle the technical language of a professional sport. In other words, nostalgia instead of numbers.
This is the oldest trick in the PR playbook: wrap a commercial decision in cultural virtue, imply a mandate, then dodge any metrics that could puncture the story. Yet the public deserves to know: how much is Sky spending, how many watch, and who actually benefits? Without that, “normalising te reo” is just a slogan — not a business plan.
Here’s the reality check Los’e never provides: Māori are about 17% of the population. Only around 6% of New Zealanders (roughly 300,000 people) are fluent or conversational in te reo. Not all of them are rugby fans. Even if every fluent speaker tuned in, it’s still a niche within a niche.
When a veteran reporter moves from interrogator to stenographer, readers lose and the PR machine wins. Sky’s te reo push may be many things — but a data-backed audience strategy isn’t one of them.
It could be a turning point in its already limping balance sheet.
Fortunately I do not do Sky Sports so that is one source of mental torture avoided. (I am considerin the same approach to RNZ)
Ecan is cowardly not courageous. Ngai Tahu play the Canterbury Councils like a fiddle. Many voters will be irate at opposition to the govt attempts to retain control of the foreshore. But who in Canterbury will dare declare a position contrary to the real rulers, Ngai Tahu.? Maori down south may not be as rabid as those in the north, but threatened cancellation by persons seemingly not irrational likely to be even more effective.
Would like to know what Andrew Bolt, Rowan Dean and the Sky Australia team would make of this - I hope they go to town on it!
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