Barrie Davis: A Fairytale of New Zealand

We have been denied a referendum on the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi next year because the Prime Minister is afraid some radical Maoris will have a hikoi. It seems likely that the majority of people would vote in favour of ACT leader David Seymour’s proposed legislation, which would remove race based privileges for Maoris and move us closer to equal voting power for our elections. We are, however, allowed to have a debate next year about Seymour’s proposed principles.  

A.E. Thompson: Manipulated by Language

Radio New Zealand is still called that. Labour's abandoned plan to merge it with TVNZ would have enabled the name 'Aotearoa' to be used. The 'working name' used by Labour as they worked through the merger and necessary legislation was 'Aotearoa NZ Public Media', but if it had progressed we can be sure they would have dropped the NZ entirely. They couldn't even bring themselves to use more than the initials of our country's name. Like The Christchurch Shooter whose name, according to Ardern's dictate, should never be spoken.

It's not clear why RNZ and TVNZ have not already abandoned that colonial term for Maoriland; possibly the laws underpinning their existence and funding would have made it difficult. Getting rid of 'New Zealand' may have been one of the reasons the Ardern government embarked upon the merger, alongside Ardern's desire for a media monolith that could be more effective for spreading her politburo's preferred propaganda.

Graham Adams: Going where the media won’t

Behind the coverage of David Seymour’s rise in the polls and Maori Language Week lurk inconvenient truths. Graham Adams argues journalists need to be more even-handed to maintain their credibility.

In the hullaballoo that followed Curia’s poll results last week, the media focused mainly on the startling fact that National’s support had collapsed to 21.3 per cent — with all its dire implications for Judith Collins continuing as the party’s leader.

Predictably, the dismal figures spawned a flurry of articles predicting a palace coup — with the rider that the mutiny could not be immediate because Level 4 lockdown prevented the party’s Auckland MPs flying to Wellington en masse to disembowel their leader in person. A coup conducted over Zoom would have been unseemly and presumably unsatisfying to those consumed with blood lust.

John Bell: What’s in a phrase?

In recent times, it has become common practice to commence a communication to someone with Kia ora and conclude with Nga mihi or some other expression in the Maori language. This now appears to be standard practice in communications from Government Departments, state-funded institutions like schools, community organisations and even some public companies such as Contact Energy.

The body of the communication remains in English for the good reason that the writer intended it to be understood. Why, then, a salutation and conclusion in Maori?    

At the end of 2019, the CEO of Forest and Bird even went as far as to wish supporters Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in Maori despite the fact that Christmas is a European Christian festival and Matariki is in the middle of the year. Has the language that served Shakespeare, Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth, Tennyson et al. so well suddenly become inadequate for beginning and ending a letter?

Karl du Fresne: There goes my collection of Viking records

I bristled – boy, did I bristle! – when I read that the housing company G J Gardner had withdrawn a TV commercial after someone objected that the name “Taranaki” wasn’t correctly pronounced.

Te Waka McLeod reportedly complained to the company and suggested its staff attend a “cultural competency” course. G J Gardner initially rebuffed her, explaining that the people in the ad were not paid actors but real people, born and bred in Taranaki, and this was how they chose to pronounce the name. “It’s a personal choice, this keeps our ad authentic.”