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Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox is supporting the efforts of TV3 weather presenter Kanoa Lloyd to add more reo Maori to her broadcasts.
Ms Lloyd revealed on Twitter that some viewers took offence at her use of kupu Maori or place names like Aotearoa or Te Waipounamu.
Ms Fox says making Maori language ordinary and every day seems to rub some people up the wrong way.
"It is the redneck portion of our society who have held on to 100 years of legislation that said Maori language was a waste of time and should not be taught in our schools. In fact when they debated it in the House of the day they said it was not conducive to human thought. Now that kind of thinking has been ingrained into the psyche of this country and it seems we have a hangover from that legislation which was only outlawed in 1969," she says.
Marama Fox says the law banning Maori language in schools was overturned by the lobbying efforts of the Victoria University Maori Graduates Association, which included the late Apirana Mahuika, Sir Tipene O’Regan and Sir Tamati Reedy.
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