Kia ora anonymous caller

Today I received an anonymous voicemail telling me off for using the word Aotearoa on a web page instead of New Zealand. I guess this person hasn't looked at the front of their passport recently! They also seem unaware that Māori is one of only two official languages in New Zealand (alongside New Zealand Sign Language). I'll definitely be saying "kia ora" next time I pick up the phone in case they call back.

Joking aside it makes me sad that this attitude still exists. That people are so insecure in their identity as New Zealanders that they think something is being stolen from them with the use of te reo Māori, not enriching our shared identity as residents of Aotearoa. That they can't see we have developed an identity apart from where our settler ancestors came from that's unique to this country in large part because our colonist forebears' culture rubbed up against Māori culture. That so many people now share whakapapa from both. That it's Te Tiriti and the relationship between Crown and Māori that gives tauiwi our place here.

Two of my great grandparents (from different sides of my tauiwi family) spoke Māori. That was just getting on with life here back then. It became apparent recently during debate around the Great Puckaroo Scandal from TV show The Chase, that many New Zealanders had no idea they were using a Māori loan word (pakaru). Most New Zealanders probably recognise more te reo Māori words than they realise. 

There is nothing to be lost here by Pākehā culture and everything to gain by a deeper understanding of te ao Māori (even by way of Kiwi/Māori slang).

Why am I posting this here? Because I think marketers have a role in reflecting how New Zealand / Aotearoa is today, and what it aspires to be and has to be for our rangatahi, not a colonial fantasy of how it never really was. As a Pākehā I need to check myself to see if I am doing that, and do what I can where I am.

I feel that as Pākehā / tauiwi we need to find ways to listen and learn (and hire for diversity, that's another post). The first steps any of us take publicly may feel like tokenism. It certainly still feels that way for me as a latecomer attempting to learn te reō Māori (and I feel pretty exposed writing this post, maybe my middle class Pākehā privilege is showing?). But I will be listening and learning for a long time yet. I encourage everyone to āwhina te āmaimai - embrace the uncomfortable, even, or maybe especially, those like my anonymous caller.

Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

Kia ora to Tūraukawa Bartlett for giving me the words āwhina te āmaimai - my new affirmation!