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Invercargill Mayor Tom Campbell says if he can speak te reo Māori with his Scottish accent, anybody can.
Mr Campbell has collaborated with his council on a new one-minute video for Te Wiki o te reo Māori which sees him travel around the city sharing Māori place names.
“Do you know your kupu? This is Ōtātara Scenic Reserve. And could there be any more beautiful place than Ōmaui, Ōreti Beach and Aparima?” he asks the camera.
Mr Campbell said the video was the idea of the council’s media team, but he had come up with the script and received help with pronunciation from a Māori staff member.
Invercargill was home to names which did not exist anywhere else in the world, and their continued use should be supported, he said.
“When you have something that’s unique, it’s worth preserving.
“I think another aspect of it is respect. We should respect the Māori people who were here before and their named places. And we should, in an appropriate way, use those names.”
Mr Campbell acknowledged that when he arrived in New Zealand about 45 years ago, that was not the case — the Māori language was seldom heard and place names were not given much thought.
“I think now you think about it more. What does it mean? What is the Māori name for Foveaux Strait, what does that mean?
“It means the passageway of [ancestral guardian] Kiwa, actually.”
The first-term mayor said the video had been widely supported and had been “great fun” to make.
“I’d just encourage people to give it a go. If I can do it with my Scottish accent, then anybody can.”
