Students push for macrons to be added to Ōmokoroa signage

Room 10 students from Omokoroa Point School Vivienne Apanui,10, Evan Baldwin,9, George Palade,10, and Maia Groucott,10. Photo / Mead Norton

A student-led campaign to have macrons added to one community's signage is proving a success.

Room 10, a class of Years 5/6 students from Ōmokoroa Point School, spoke at Western Bay of Plenty District Council's policy committee meeting on Tuesday explaining that without a tohutō (macron) the place name is spelt incorrectly.

The campaign, titled Operation Tohutō, is pushing to add a tohutō to the O of Ōmokoroa on all of the town's signage.

At the meeting, students explained that words can take on new meanings if they do not have the macrons they need.

Vivienne Apanui, 10, said she felt heard by the council at the meeting and the changes were important to "respect the whakapapa" of the name.

"You can't be wrong spelling someone's name and then just leaving it there."

Year 5 student Evan Baldwin, 9, agreed and believed the class's efforts would help inspire other schools to do the same.

"We hope other schools will follow our lead. It would be pretty good."

At the meeting, Room 10 students also requested other signage around the Western Bay be reviewed and for the council to design a new billboard for the entrance of Ōmokoroa.

The council agreed and asked students to help design the new billboard.

Room 10 teacher Deirdre Duggan previously said the project idea came about at the start of Term 2 after writing the school name on the board and adding the macron, she said.

''The children were saying 'it doesn't have a macron', and I said 'it actually does have a macron' ... so someone grabbed a computer and said 'oh, my goodness, it needs a macron but it's not there'.''

''The conversation went from there ... what it means, why Ōmokoroa has one, how many places have it and how many places don't.''

Duggan said students then decided "it needed to be put right" and got in touch with the council. The past three weeks had been spent preparing for Tuesday's presentation.

"These things take time - it's finally starting to take momentum. It's positive social change - you can make a difference but you need to go about it in the right way."

The class also created instructional videos on why the macron was important and how to use it on devices as part of their project.

The students were now planning on writing to the Ministry of Education to have the school's name officially changed to include the macron and to work with the local businesses "so the tohutō is on everything," she said.

Ōmokoroa Point School students George Palade, Evan Baldwin, Vivienne Apanui and Maia Groucott spoke at a council meeting on Tuesday. Photo / Mead Norton

Principal Sandra Portegys said she was extremely proud of Room 10 for "taking a stand and seeing it through" despite the challenges.

There was a small amount of community backlash on social media at the start but since then, reinforcement had only been positive, she said.

"They are getting momentum and they are making change - that is what this is all about.
We talk all the time about being respectful - and you can be respectful in lots of different ways - and one of them is pronouncing and spelling names correctly."

The class also had the support of the Pirirakau hapū and local te reo Māori linguist Teraania Ormsby-Teki on their journey to support the history and cultural significance of Ōmokoroa.

In a written statement, Western Bay Mayor Garry Webber expressed his support for the initiative, saying the council was taking the request seriously.

"As a community, we need more advocates like these rangatahi. They're doing a fantastic job of showing their community how to use and respect the reo," he said.

Council said it had included a macron for all new communications that include Ōmokoroa following discussion with Pirirakāu hapū in 2020.

All new signs and publications had included a tohutō on Ōmokoroa since then.

Old signs would have a macron added or would be replaced with the correct spelling as per "the usual maintenance schedule", it said.