June 01, 2021
Te reo Māori not wanted at ratepayers hui
A Tauranga kaumātua says the way a ratepayers group treated one of its own members who started a submission with a mihi in Māori was the thrashings of a dinosaur.
Tauranga Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesperson Kim Williams is denying reports that supporters at the alliance launch event shouted and jeered when she gave a brief greeting in te reo Māori, and says much of the noise was the audience objecting to only two or three abusers.
But Buddy Mikaere from Ngāti Pūkenga says based on volume, the majority of people in the room were on the side of the abusers.
He says many of the faces in the new group were familiar from earlier Hobson’s Pledge rallies.
"I think its reflective of a particular demographic we've got in Tauranga – a lot of older Pākehā people who've retired here, because of the climate I guess. These incidents, I see them as the death throes of a dying dinosaur," Mr Mikaere says.
He says going by the response from schoolchildren when he talks to them about events such as the battle of Pukehinahina-Gate Pā, the next generation will have a completely different view of life in Aotearoa.
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