Luxons lack of irony during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori
A coy, late in the evening tweet encapsulates our Prime Minister's stance on te Reo Māori
It’s Te Wiki o te Reo Māori! A wholesome week where we celebrate te Reo Māori and its history, and embrace it by changing company names for a week, much to the chagrin of racist Facebook commenters.
It’s a time to celebrate milestones such as Te Karere, celebrating 42 years on air as one of the first Māori news shows on mainstream television, but also a time to have meaningful conversations around the pressures of Māori being expected to speak fluent te reo in the workplace, how to keep the language thriving for generations to come, and of course, this governments commitment to te Reo Māori.
And when it comes to the National Party attempting to “celebrate our indigenous language” this week, you can’t help but roll your eyes to the back of your head at the irony.
Let’s start with Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Paul Goldsmith, who stated that te Wiki o te Reo Māori is a "hugely important part of our culture" while sporting a Māori Language Week pin on his lapel, stressing that "I think it's a good opportunity for everybody to — if they're interested — take stock in learning something new.”
Now, you may remember earlier this year Goldsmith ordered officials to remove te reo Māori greetings and references to "Aotearoa" in a formal letter to his Australian counterpart, inviting him to Matariki celebrations.
National leader Christopher Luxon however has kept his head low during this week, he didn’t acknoledge it during the first press conference of the week, which is informally customary, and posted a pretty down-the-line acknowledgment on his socials, referring to it as “Māori language week”:
“Te Reo is a language I wish I knew more of. In fact both Amanda and myself have worked at it over the years - both taking lessons to learn and improve. In New Zealand we’re lucky to have this language and I’m glad to celebrate it. Happy Māori Language week. Kia Kaha te Reo”
- Chrstopher Luxon on ‘X’ 8:56 PM · Sep 16, 2024
Maybe its because he has the treaty pricpals bill looming over him, or because one of his first acts as prime minister was to revert te reo names of ministries and agencies back to their english names, maybe it was because his elemited the Māori health authority and slamming any sort of incentives to priotise Māori health.
Even he must know that that tweet must ring hollow in light of all this, which brings us to today’s comic:
Behind the Panels:
“Te Reo is a language I wish I knew more of”
You want to know a great way to know more of a language, especially one that is native the country you lead? incorporating it into everyday life, including our signs, and communications. You know, like other countries with two core languages do.
But since coming into power, for no other reason than to dog whistle to racists, the National lead coalition has made it a core mission to make sure te reo Māori isn’t being promoted, or incorporated, kneecapping everyone’s ability to incorporate it into there lives.
They did this leading up to the election, getting up-in-arms about te reo road signs, and the “governemnt of not wasting money” has spent their first few month replacing signs and graphics on agencies and ministry across the country.
And its to play to their racist fan base, you only need to look directly under Luxons “Happy Māori Language week” tweet to see exactly the consequences of taking these stances play and give power to:
“It is a language with little use in the rest of the world and understood by only 0.013%, so please stop pushing the public service to force it on us.”
“Stop being a hypocrite we don’t want a dead language forced down our throats. They want their culture keep it to themselves. Do what you were voted in for and get our country back to ONE COUNTRY ONE PEOPLE.”
“We will always be an English speaking country. Most of us are not interested in it Chris. The stats tell you that. So stop letting them force it on us and stop all the wasteful spending on a language that only a very few use. Do better.”
And that’s the more tame ones.
If you genuinely want to learn it, genuinely are proud of it and want to celebrate it, then you’d be doing the opposite of the actions you have done so far, because a safe, late in the evening tweet during te Wiki o te Reo Māori is really laying out how important it is to you.
Danz