Pee Kay: The Politics of Language

Rita Mae Brown, an American feminist writer is remembered as saying, “He unzipped his pants and his brains fell out.”

A more sagacious pearl of wisdom from Rita Mae was, “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.”

Worryingly, those last 4 words may be portentous as far as New Zealand is concerned!

In countries where there are more than one main language, there are often political implications around decisions that can and are seen to endorse and stimulate one language over another, even in some cases validating the minor language with “official” status.

That is the politics of language!

Language is a meaningful indicator of a country’s communal personality.

Belgium and Canada are classic example of language politics. Belgium’s constitution guarantees each language, Dutch, French, and German, substantial independence which has devolved into distinct linguistic communities and led to entrenched linguistic divisions and, therefore, a very complicated national governance.

Canada still struggles its official bilingualism of English and French. Bilingualism is a Canadian government policy designed to foster inclusivity, but in actuality, creates political tensions, particularly in Quebec.

Designating a language as official often privileges that particular linguistic group. Thereby allowing the language to be used by the political elites of that particular group to consolidate national identity and amalgamate prominence to and around the language, to exert pressure on speakers of a non official language, eventually leading to authority.

Language imperialism?

The expression Language imperialism is the imposing of one language over others, leading to the suppression or erosion of an indigenous language. It is more often than not the English language that receives the language imperialism descriptor, probably due to the dishonour and disrepute now associated with colonialism.

In early 2024, Ahmed Aziz, a Pakistani tangata Tiriti, a PhD candidate in Māori Studies and a Master of Indigenous Studies from the University of Auckland … wrote in E-Tangata

My biggest fear is that my daughter will lose her language as she grows up in a predominantly English-speaking New Zealand. I speak to her only in Urdu because that will be her first language. But later she will learn te reo Māori because it’s the language of the land. And she’ll learn English too, because, well, there’s no other way, thanks to language imperialism.

Language is the lifeblood of human existence. It’s not just a tool for communication but a fundamental pillar of collective and individual identity. If you repress a society’s language, you’re not just taking away the letters and the words. You’re destroying the ethos, philosophy, literature, music, and the history of that society. This is precisely why language imperialism is an essential weapon in the arsenal of every colonial project.

Simply stated, language imperialism is the imposed domination of one language over another. In the historical colonial context, it’s the forceful imposition of the language of the coloniser over the colonised. English is the dominant language in New Zealand because of language imperialism.

But are we, in New Zealand, essentially being confronted with “reverse language imperialism?”

Well before Ahmed Aziz was expounding his thoughts on the “Language Imperialism,” the Māori Party, in 2022, in all their myopic bigoty were pushing for all place names to be restored to their original Māori name by 2026 and “Aotearoa” to officially replace “New Zealand”. They even launched a petition to that effect.

With Waititi stating “It’s well past time that Māori was restored to its rightful place as the first and official language of this country. We are a Polynesian country, we are Aotearoa.”

Adding, “Aotearoa is a name that will unify our country rather than divide it. Others are trying to use it is a divisive tool, but this is an inclusive tool, where our ancestors consented to us all living on this land together.”

Further claiming, “Tangata whenua are sick to death of our ancestral names being mangled, bastardised, and ignored. It’s the 21st century, this must change. It is the duty of the Crown to do all that it can to restore the status of our language. That means it needs to be accessible in the most obvious of places; on our televisions, on our radio stations, on road signs, maps and official advertising, and in our education system.”

Rawiri, as with all his blinkered rants, fails to understand the modern cities and towns of New Zealand do not owe their existence in any way to Maori culture.

Sure, their original locations may have been near maori settlements but they, like most towns in New Zealand are more representative of the product of European culture, enterprise, investment, work ethic, technology and plain hard work. These settlements have evolved and taken over, in some places, two hundred years to develop.

So, yes Rawiri, they are an outcome of colonisation. Colonisation, yes that dirty word that Rawiri claims epitomises all the ills that have befallen Maori since 1840.

Colonisation, in the form of hard work and enterprise created the cities and towns of New Zealand.

Alongside colonists, Maori have lived, worked and benefitted from their existence for generations.

Over the generations many of “your people” would have been employed in the various industries that built them and then in the many and various industries that grew them.

In 2022 the Hamilton City Council, who had, earlier, flirted with changing the name, in spite of public opinion, of Hamilton to Kirikiriroa, were keen to show their distaste of language imperialism and take up the banner of the Maori Party’s mission.

A Hamilton street, named after a New Zealand land wars general, Gustavus von Tempsky, would no longer be Von Tempsky St. Hamilton councillors voted to rename it Pūtikitiki St.

This act of “reverse language imperialism” came about when long-time activist Taitimu Maipi, a well known pro-Chinese, Communist Party of NZ member and grandfather of Maori Party MP, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, launched a petition in 2021 to have the name changed.

Maipi claimed the change was significant for Hamilton to no longer have a street named after a member of a “murderous group” of people who led the invasion of Waikato. “It reminded us of the atrocities that these guys did to our people.”

And here is another good example of “reverse language imperialism.” In 2021, the Advertising Standards Authority of New Zealand upheld a complaint against a radio advertisement that mispronounced the Māori place name, Rangiora. The complaint was upheld on the basis that the mispronunciation was disrespectful, caused harm to te reo Māori and was likely to offend consumers.

Local bodies are faced with a dilemma when naming streets, roads and new suburbs. There will be factions, both pro and anti obligatory Maori names and those are further compounded with the, so called treaty obligations, requiring Maori, non elected, representatives are included in decision-making!

Many local bodies have Road Naming and Property Address policies that state names should continue an established theme for road names in the area, reflect a significant landscape feature or flora or fauna local to the area and must reflect the significance of the cultural landscape.

Must reflect the significance of the cultural landscape. The veiled way of saying “Maori names will be used.”

A 5 year battle between sub division developers, iwi and the Whakatāne District Council, finally ended in 2024.

Back in 2019 the developers of the subdivision, had proposed three names, Acacia Avenue, Victory Lane, and Atlas Rise, they were all rejected as they did not meet naming requirements.

Local iwi and hapu preferred a traditional Māori name for the area as the iwi’s ancestors hold the mana over the land.

Mind-bogglingly, after 5 years of argument, councillors eventually voted through “Acacia Avenue”???

How much money did that muscle flexing by local Maori cost the developers and the ratepayers!

Yes, by also acknowledging Māori place names, we give substance to the uniqueness of New Zealand. Gifting a Maori name and changing their names would never make places Maori cities, but it would cause confusion and resentment on a massive scale.

Maori people make up 17% of the population and that 17% have a huge level of influence in government and our lives.

So large is their influence that Maori is an official language of New Zealand, English is not!

How ridiculous is that.

That is “reverse language imperialism!”

And, the politics of language in New Zealand!

Pee Kay writes he is from a generation where common sense, standards, integrity and honesty are fundamental attributes. This article was first published HERE