Sensible changes, natural adjustments

Clive Bibby

Opinion

Enforced changes to our social behaviour are having the reaction one might expect, and it does not bode well.

This is doubly unfortunate for a country that is capable of accommodating any new direction and making slow but good progress towards achieving that utopian dream.

In fact, this is likely to have the opposite effect to the one intended — building resentment amongst those who were well on the way to making the changes themselves in their own time.

Most of the adjustments l am talking about are those required so we really do become a multicultural society that acknowledges the positive contributions made by all those of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

And obviously this gradual assimilation of the different parts of our cultural heritage needs to be handled in such a way that we truly reflect the society we want to become.

But it won’t happen if we are forced to adopt things in a way that alienates us from one another — which is what is happening now simply because of the ham-fisted approach adopted by those who control the narrative.

I think l speak for a majority of Kiwis who would support the government-sponsored introduction of compulsory te reo teaching in primary school.

I, like many others who grew up in communities where Maori represented a large percentage of the population, regret that we didn’t have the opportunity to be taught what was for some their native tongue. It could so easily have become ours as well. Yet on reaching secondary school age, we in rural communities were offered a choice between learning French, bookkeeping or a manual trade.

While the latter two were sensible choices preparing for a life in the workforce, I can only remember a few words of French, none of which were of use even when l did finally get to France so many years later.

Imagine a nation of citizens fluent in our dual native tongues. Irrespective of whether individuals speak the Maori language overseas or not, the benefit of that knowledge here at home would be enormous.

They say that if you understand the language, you are well on the way to understanding the culture — and it is that non-threatening pathway that should be used to bring us together rather than keep us apart.

Some recent developments need to be examined based on their capacity to do one or the other of the above.

One is the un-mandated introduction of te reo place names in MSM broadcasts and publications, especially the adopted “Aotearoa” national equivalent instead of the one used as far back as our founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi.

The unfortunate reaction to this inflammatory move by mainstream media and our authorities — including the Government’s clandestine, unmandated actions over the He Pua Pua report — is resentment. This is mainly because the bulk of the viewers or readers don’t understand the place names or their local importance — even alongside their English equivalent.

Also, the introduction of dual language roadside instructions may result in unforseen fatalities, through confusion when a fast reaction is required.

Best to keep it simple — at least for now.