May 03, 2022
Time’s up for Bennett reo rant
The Māori Language Commission Te Taura Whiri I te reo Māori has hit back at a newspaper columnist’s description of the Māori language is nonsense.
Otago Daily Times columnist Joe Bennett reported a neighbour’s view she no longer listened to Radio New Zealand because of its use of Māori, and agreed the broadcaster was wasting its time and alienating listeners.
Earlier columns by the Lyttelton-based writer have argued te reo Māori is dying and government efforts to reverse that are doomed by evolution.
Language Commissioner Rawinia Higgins says Mr Bennett reflects the views of a generation which is fast becoming a minority.
“And so there are still all those voices that are appearing but definitely there has been a huge positive response to the article I wrote pushing back against Joe Bennett so I think we are seeing more and more people seeing te reo as part of their norm rather than the exception,” she says.
Professor Higgins applauded Radio New Zealand’s efforts to move from reflecting just a monolingual, monocultural Aotearoa.