The scheme to ram Maoridom down our throats took a new turn with the announcement that Matariki was going to be celebrated with a new public holiday, so that we can all celebrate Maori culture and teachings. I was unaware that the celebration of the winter solstice was uniquely Maori, particularly as different tribes celebrate it on different dates, but as they say, you learn something new every day. I was similarly unaware that Maori discovered the cluster Pleiades, named after Greek mythological figures. Clever devils, those Maoris.
Then I came across this article in the Australian Spectator, and it struck a chord. You can read the full article here, but I was relieved to find that, in many of my suspicions about the promotion of Maoridom, I am not alone.
count me out of the increasing substitution of this most important international language by Kia ora, Tena koutou and all the other PC greetings, introductions, labelling, messages or explanations in Maori – or pseudo-Maori – increasingly sprinkled throughout government departments and media. In longwinded, incomprehensible introductions to TV and radio programmes, politically correct announcers rotundly approximate Maori vowels – at the same time managing to massacre basic English pronunciation. The oft-repeated phrase ‘Maori culture’, for example, is now delivered largely as ‘Moddi colcha’ – in the slack-jawed distortion of English prevalent since teaching clear speech to children was abandoned.
Oh, thank God. somebody feels the way I do. I am sick to death of long-winded incomprehensible and patronising Maori phrases from all TV presenters and many Government servants. Even Ashley Bloomfield, when he burst on out screens in March, always started with “Kia Ora Koutou”. But sometime in June, the greeting changed to “Kia Ora Koutou Katoa”. Why the change? Was the first greeting incorrect? Not according to the Maori dictionary. So what happened?
I first came to New Zealand in 1984 and in the early days, took a bit of interest in getting Maori pronunciations right. I used to listen to weather forecasts on what must have been National Radio, read out by a Maori. His pronunciation of Taupo was Tow (as in tower)- poh, with a very short ‘o’ at the end. This pronunciation is in line with the spelling of the word. But now we are told that the correct pronunciation is Tar-paw. If that was how the word is to be pronounced, wouldn’t the English spelling be a bit more accurate? And why has it changed in 35 years? The Maori reader in the 1980s must have known how to pronounce his own language.
The same applies to Kauri (not Kody) and Maori (not Moldy). Waikato still seems to have a short ‘o’ at the end, but Taupo doesn’t. Its confusing, incoherent and if it is meant to make us all want to speak Maori, it is doing a very poor job.
The thing is that it is not Maori themselves who are ramming their language down our throats. They have the choice to speak their own language or not. Many don’t bother, as it does nothing to help them succeed in the real world. No, once again, it is white liberals and elites who are pushing the drive for Maori language and culture to be adopted by a mostly unwilling population. Some people take the plunge and try to learn the language, but most of us have neither the time nor the inclination. It is a stone age language and a stone age culture and it has nothing to offer the modern world.
The worst thing is the peppering of New Zealand English with Maori or made-up Maori words. Even the Maori channel, which can produce programmes fully in Maori if they wish, have programmes and adverts that are in English with Maori words peppered throughout. Words like ‘Kai’, ‘Tamariki’, ‘mahi’ and ‘whanau’ appear regularly. Is this going to mean that future generations of New Zealanders will not be understood in the rest of the English speaking world? It looks, every time I watch the news, as if we are heading that way.
Then there is the Maoridom by stealth. There is the use of Aotearoa instead of New Zealand, (have you noticed that it is now starting to be pronounced – ‘Aotearo? Why is that? Is the letter ‘a’ at the end for pure decoration?) but that is not an official name for our country. Suddenly the weather reporter on TV1 has invented a new area of the country – Tamaki Makaurau. Where is that? The latest is yet another new area – Te Waipounamu. Where is that? And this is on the TV1 News.
I have this sneaking suspicion that this practice, is just out-and-out elitism. It is a form of intellectual snobbery. Instead of bringing us together, it divides us, but that is the intention. A divided society is a weak society.
Embrace your Maori neighbours and friends, but don’t feel compelled to speak their language. Many of them don’t speak it themselves, so it seems crazy that everyone else is forced into it. I think this country was much less divided back in the 1980s when I came here, with Maori mingling and rubbing along with other races in all walks of society. But we couldn’t have that, could we? Now we have a society that erupts into fractured racism every February 6, with most people, Maori included, deeply ashamed of what goes on. Exactly why we want another public holiday that can be hijacked by activists determined to divide us all is unclear, but one thing is for sure. We need something that brings us together as a nation and a public holiday for something that was mostly unheard of 30 years ago, Matariki, is not it.
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