March 21, 2021
Kapiti racists target tamariki
The Māori Language Commission has praised students from an Ōtaki kura for lodging a formal complaint after they were subjected to racial abuse while performing a haka at a Kapiti Coast District Council meeting.
The students from Te Wharekura o te Rito were at the meeting to support local iwi gifting the name Te Uruhi to the new Kapiti Island gateway centre at Paraparaumu.
The students say when they were performing they were being heckled by members of the public telling them to sit down and describing te reo Maoi as “ monkey language”.
Te Taura Whiri chief executive Ngahiwi Apanui says by complaining the tamariki are refusing to normalise racism.
Those who are so bitterly opposed to te reo Māori are increasingly in the minority, with commission research showing eight in 10 New Zealand see te reo as a part of their identity and something to be proud of.
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