Store owner signs up for te reo

By ELIZABETH BINNING

Looking for paraoa, miraka or pata (bread, milk or butter)? Then check out the Tokomaru Bay Four Square.

The store, which also arranges doctors appointments, hands out prescriptions and orders car parts, has become probably the first shop in the country to have both English and Maori signs.

Signs hanging at the end of each food aisle are now written in English and Maori.

The signs accompany a large Maori welcoming sign at the store entrance. Another sign will soon be installed on the outside of the building.

Store owner Bruce Holm said members of the predominantly Maori community on the East Coast approached him with a proposal late last year.

"I readily agreed because it seemed the right thing to do for any and every reason you can think of, not the least of which was that this is an 80 per cent Maori community," said Mr Holm, who bought the business last July.

"One of the things that blew me away when I first came here was that people came into the store and talked to each other in Maori. I never heard it like that before, being a Pakeha boy."

"It [introducing bilingual signs] seemed to me to be a logical thing to do, to give it a commercial application which it hasn't had before. I firmly believe that Maori is a precious gift that all New Zealanders should treasure."

Maori Language Commission spokeswoman Lana Simmons-Donaldson said the signs were a great move and very timely with Maori Language Week occurring next month.

"We take our hats off to that businessman and ... hope others follow."

Ms Simmons-Donaldson said that 20 years ago, the language was struggling but today more Maori are fluent speakers. The language has been given renewed impetus by the advent of kohanga reo (Maori-language preschools) and kura kaupapa (schools), as well as iwi radio stations and the launching of Maori Television.

Signs and letterheads for most Government departments are now written in both languages.

In August 1987, Maori was declared an official language of New Zealand.

According to Statistics New Zealand, in 1999 more than a third of Maori children enrolled in early childhood education were attending kohanga reo.

Even TV2's Shortland St includes Maori language in the show. Characters Dr Kahu, his nephew Tama and girlfriend Donna often greet one another in Maori.

SPEAKING MAORI

* 1 in 4 Maori speak Maori. 30,000 non-Maori can speak Maori. Nearly half of Maori language speakers are under 25 years.

* In the past five years Shortland St characters have started greeting one another and having short conversations in Maori.

* Most Government departments and a large number of companies have Maori on their letterheads and logos.