A story published by the Times on August 16, (‘War of words heats up over Māori placenames’), received more than 1600 comments when it was posted on our Facebook page. Here’s a selection of the most interesting and thoughtful comments on the post from Times’ readers:
- Kay P Jones
I have recently been travelling in Scotland and Wales, and bilingual signage is everywhere. We should embrace the opportunity to learn te reo, and our country’s history through using Māori names. The more we are exposed to them, the quicker they will roll off our tongues. Come on fellow Pakeha, we can do this. Or are you implying that we are less clever than the Scots and Welsh?
- Phil Gifford
I shudder sometimes at the attitudes of my generation (I was born in 1947). But thankfully my grandchildren accept te reo and Māori culture as a normal part of life. We’re not a little slice of Britain in the Pacific, we’re Aotearoa New Zealand (as it says on my passport). In 30 years’ time fossils who think we’re still in the 1970s will have gone, and I’m betting whining about Māori language will be considered as weird as Trump and Vance.
- Jess Hei Hei
Just want to put it out there, when the All Blacks or any other sport body go to a national stage and do a haka all New Zealanders are proud, yet when they try to integrate the same thing into normal society it’s blasphemy. You either embrace the culture as a whole or you don’t embrace it at all. Don’t use Māori culture as a tourism money bag and then turn your noses up to the same culture being integrated into the country it comes from.
- Rose Clark
On a personal level I have no problem with te reo and believe it should be embraced as part of NZ culture, which I believe is happening already. On a practical level, making te reo the primary language on any kind of signage is such an insanely blatant display of virtue signaling, it is mind blowing. Every single person in this country speaks English, or is required to understand and speak English if they wish to stay here for any length of time. Making English the secondary translation, with te reo as the primary wording, on any kind of signage is a complete waste of taxpayers’ money and will genuinely just be confusing for a lot of people. Only a small portion of the population of NZ speak and understand te reo.
- Read the story that sparked the debate here: War of words over Maori names for public places – Times
