May 29, 2023
Bilingual road signs long overdue
Te reo Māori advocacy body Te Mātāwai says bilingual road signs will continue the drive towards normalising the Māori language in this country.
Waka Kotahi is consulting on 94 proposed signs, but National’s transport spokesperson Simeon Brown says they will be confusing, and National would ditch them.
Te Mātāwai co-chair Reikura Kahi says the new signs, which would be installed when existing signs are damaged or wear out, include tūnga pahi or bus stop, and Te Ara Puaki for Expressway.
She says Aotearoa is long overdue for bilingual signage.
“You look at Wales, and they implemented bilingual signage in the 70s. And here we are, 2023, with one sign that’s bilingual… and that’s kura-schools, so we are behind the times, internationally,” Ms Kahi says.
She says te reo Māori traffic signs make the language visible at community level where whānau live and play, and they affirm the mana of te reo.