Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori - Maori Language Week!

[oldfart]

I got no problem with Maori,but I don't want it rammed down my throat.I know a few Maori words,work on correcting my 1950s pronunciation,which is a bit embarrasing at times.

They can have Maori Language Week,but it will pass over me un noticed like all the political speeches this week will too.A road test on the new Buel Ulysses
in Maori? Ok,that will get me involved!

Totally agree - love it when the news readers call Motueka
"Mott chew eka"

[SimJen]

The languauge is there, If people want to learn it fine but it shouldn't be forced upon our kids in schools or the general public. Sure its nice for people to spell and pronounce it correctly but considering people have trouble with the pronounciation of basic english words then its a bit of a waste trying to teach everyone.
The majority of NZers have no interest in the culture or the language, that doesn't make them bad people.

[Lias]

The languauge is there, If people want to learn it fine but it shouldn't be forced upon our kids in schools or the general public. Sure its nice for people to spell and pronounce it correctly but considering people have trouble with the pronounciation of basic english words then its a bit of a waste trying to teach everyone.
The majority of NZers have no interest in the culture or the language, that doesn't make them bad people.

OMG you evil politically incorrect racist nazi colonial oppressor (tm)

You are oppressing the tangata whenua with your racist attitudes and the bro's are going to have to get another $500 million froom the guberment because you hurt their feelings

[MSTRS:Me]

The compulsory thing is insidious & it makes me quite uncomfortable. Has anyone noticed on TV One that the voices now say 'Only on Tahi/One' ? And why, if it is necessary, does the Maori bit get said first?

[Storm]

Now you've gone and given them the idea bugger ya ! And its election year so they'll collect large

[Quasievil]

Why would I. I couldn't give a rat's, (not you Dave) about my european culture. When was the last time you went to ballet or the opera? So I'm fecked if I'm going to waste my time on some other crummy cultural shite. I'll stick to bikes & other things that interest me thanks all the same.

Not that long ago, you closed minded fool

[oldfart]

Not that long ago, you closed minded fool

Sorry, didn't realise that was you in the tutu with breast augmentation

[Motu]

Kareponia was called California back in my fathers days in the 30s,and before - there is even a AA road sign saying California.,well there was last time I was up there 5 years ago.

[kerryg]

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/Gallery/tereo/


Tena koutou katoa....
Like I said... Just found out it's Maori language week. w00t!
Kaore taku reo Maori i te tino pai.

Several red necks in my near location have passed this off as more useless PC dribble, (and will be voting ACT), as it has no real worth at all.

And this is true to a point.
No significant commerce will ever happen in Maori that I can forsee, the major language of NZ will likely stay English, and couldn't our kids do something better with their time and my money then learn an obsolite language? Even latin has a greater use, (especially at med school for instance...)

So without looking like a sandel wearing-tree hugging hippy-gay friendly-culturally aware type of guy, what's wrong with learning a little bit about our extra melanin coated friends?

Isn't our history something to be proud of?
NZ loves the All Blacks, but how many know all the words to the Haka?, or what they mean?
All of the places we live in have Maori names that mean something, most of which can be understood by cobbling together two or more nouns, thus giving a place name of significance.
At the moment, there seesm to be a real push for Maori just to be PC... not because of any desire to learn another language or recognise another culture, but just to be 'seen doing the right thing'.

I reckon, why waste any time on that at all?
It's insulting to Maori, and does nothing for anybody else, except piss people off.
We have a country with two strongly intertwined cultures and languages, but only one is really recognised.

Leaving two possible directions to take....
1: Ditch the tokenism, and get on with life as an ENGLISH speaking country, with only historical reference to our Maori past.

2: Have a properly integrated Maori education system in schools, teaching the basics, working up to something like high school level.

What do ya reckon then, you lot?
How about learning a little bit about the place you live in.
Could this be constructive as a nation, or devisive?

More power to you, CG

I'm an old Pakeha with all the old Pakeha prejudices but you can't escape the fact that Maori were cheated and brutalised and exploited by our forebears. Not even that long ago either. They are now over-represented in the statistics for short life expectancy, criminal offending, alcolhol abuse and so on and that's a pattern repeated among indigenous peoples in other countries (look at the aborigines or Native Americans or Inuit). They were culturally marginalised (how about being forbidden from speaking their language at school, in my lifetime?). Talk of "all just being New Zealanders regardless of colour or creed" is all very well, and resonates with most of us I imagine, but Maori got the the dirty end of the stick for a long time (that's a fact, beyond dispute, and history has recorded it) and deserve an extra helping hand. I don't agree with every Maori loony who wants us white folk to go back to England (don't think the Poms would have me anyway ) but if we can look past the extreme element there is a big job waiting to be done in terms of re-paying the social debt to Maori. Language is a vital part of cultural identity and quite properly the Maori language needs to be treated as a living language (i.e. in actual everyday use). It's the least the Maori are owed.


My 2 cents worth

[Lou Girardin]

Perhaps their language would survive if the Maoris learnt it. Just as the Welsh, Scots and Irish have done.
Although on the face of it it seems an easy language to learn, the multiple pronounciations must be confusing though. Maybe that's why they don't bother.
I do object to having this stuff forced on us using our tax dollars and fronted by people who deny their parentage by changing their names, eg. Hammi Piripi ( Sam Philips?)
I think I'd prefer to learn Italian, I wonder if there's a grant to do that?
After all, the Govt stole our land in Wellington too.

[madboy]

I appreciate that there are legitimate grievances that need to be aired and resolved. It is important that Maori feel that due consideration is given to their historical issues. I don't agree that giving away billions of dollars to be mis-managed and wasted is an adequate resolution.

Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, only the extreme elements get presented in the media. I, like the vast majority of middle-class european descent NZ, have little contact with real Maori culture other than those extreme elements that are presented to me by the media as being on the receiving end of the tax that I work f***ing hard to earn. It's those useless bludgers that create a negative impression of the Maori culture in my mind.

Just like people have a negative perception of motorcyclists because the media shows the 1 in 300,000 that kills someone while doing something stupid. It's just a fact of life.

So while people judge someone me as an idiot not a bike enthusiast, I judge Maori's as undeserving of my tax dollars. Don't like my opinion, sue me.

[oldfart]

there is a big job waiting to be done in terms of re-paying the social debt to Maori.

Oh goodey. Being of Celtic descent, according to this, I can expect heaps of compo from the Romans/Saxons/Normans/English who farked over my ancestors. They can all learn my bloody language too, that'll learn them. Feckin tourists

[kerryg]

Oh goodey. Being of Celtic descent, according to this, I can expect heaps of compo from the Romans/Saxons/Normans/English who farked over my ancestors. They can all learn my bloody language too, that'll learn them. Feckin tourists

Yeah, fair enough. . but if I get your point, it's a big step from suggesting that (some, I grant you , not all) modern Maori are carrying the legacy of generations of exploitation, land theft, cultural marginalisation etc...to saying that I am personally accepting responsibility for it. Hell no! But it can't be denied, not plausibly anyway, that bad shit was done to Maori. If we, the taxpayer, don't pay to redress at least some of the harm done, who will?

I read up a bit on the Treaty (e.g Claudia Orange's book, I forget the title)and even for someone like me, raised on the notion that Pakeha brought civilisation to those ignorant savages (oh..and VD, TB and some other good stuff), it challenges old conceptions about the status of the Pakeha here.

I don't buy into white liberal guilt or cultural cringe...just think we should acknowledge the truth of the past.

That Maori have in some cases made a pig's- arse of thingsa when getting money off the Crown (eg Tainui settlement, Te Wananga, Tuku's $80 underpants...the list is long) is a worry, but it doesn't alter the legitimacy of their grievances and needs. Who can argue that paying for stolen land or that providing special targeted resources to help Maori upskill (e.g. Te Wananga) is not a good thing? The problem lies in the execution.

[oldfart]

[QUOTE=kerryg]Yeah, fair enough. . but if I get your point, it's a big step from suggesting that (some, I grant you , not all) modern Maori are carrying the legacy of generations of exploitation, land theft, cultural marginalisation etc...to saying that I am personally accepting responsibility for it. Hell no! But it can't be denied, not plausibly anyway, that bad shit was done to Maori. If we, the taxpayer, don't pay to redress at least some of the harm done, who will?QUOTE]

First thing is, you are correct, like any conquered race, the Maori got right royally reemed of just about everything. As to compensation, well how bout the decendents, (called loosley English), Romans/Saxons/Normans?Pakis give my Welsh ancestors back their feckin & intoducing deseases etc. How far do you go with this. Also add in the interesting statistic that there is not one pure blooded Maori left alive. This means every Maori alive has some european parentage. That's why some of their more redical fringes have unique maori names like Mike Smith & are whiter than I am.

[kerryg]

[
As to compensation, well how bout the decendents, (called loosley English), Romans/Saxons/Normans?Pakis give my Welsh ancestors back their feckin & intoducing deseases etc. :[/QUOTE

My last word, I promise.

I guess where I'm coming from has several parts: firstly, that it's fair to posit that it is largely because of past unfair treatment of Maori by Pakeha that Maori now feature disproportionately in the indicators like crime statistics, diabetes, early death, educational under-achievement etc etc. (The only other way to interpret it is that they are just, somehow, well, inferior. See where that goes?). So, it's a matter of justice, putting right past injustices. Secondly, remedy the causes of those anomalies (how, of course, is another matter !!!)and this is a better/safer/healthier place to live. Thirdly, these are our fellow NZers, who have, by the way, in the view of better-educated people than me...OK that means everyone...generously (even unwisely) allowed us white fullas to stay in their country. The least we owe them is to help a man when he's down, more particularly when we are living (you could say) on the fruits of their sacrifice.