Civis last week ran out of space to include the regular comment or two about language. This week makes up for that absence.
Another week back, Maniototo was mentioned in passing in a discussion about the Pigroot road.
First, was a report the Maniototo Community Board voted to keep its name rather than changing it to Māniatoto.
Civis would have been convinced by the points made by rūnaka chairman Matapura Ellison, and personally favours Māniatoto.
Maniototo came to be, apparently, as some sort of corruption of a Māori name. It honours te reo to correct wrongly spelt Māori place names.
It is suggested the original name’s meaning was mānia, as in a plain, and toto, a "a huge red blanket or a sea of red blood", as a reference to native plant Buchanan’s sedge.
That is more colourful than a word that doesn’t translate from te reo.
On the other hand, the rūnaka isn’t centred in the area and many locals have developed their history with "Maniototo".
Its use has been long and consistent. Support for retaining that name was strong.
Those of us, including Civis, who don’t live there can respect that view.
Although Central Otago District Council staff had been using Māniatoto, the council agreed to the board’s recommendation.
A community board is a community’s voice. Its recommendations should be supported when that is feasible.
Perhaps, also, Maniototo should be retained until an official change from the New Zealand Geographic Board takes place.
Mr Ellison displayed graciousness in his response, thanking the council and community board for seeking all opinions and ensuring the views of mana whenua were considered.
The use of Māniatoto could well still spread. As it is, the council this week decided to retain that form of the word for council correspondence except when referring specifically to the board.
It is interesting the way Mt Egmont (Captain James Cook’s choice) faded from 1986 when Mt Taranaki became a joint official name.
Egmont was officially scrapped in 2019, and Taranaki Maunga now wins favour — or Taranaki Mounga in the dialect of Taranaki iwi.
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The revival and spread of te reo, as the indigenous language of Aotearoa, is welcome.
But it need not be rushed and should seldom be forced on people or institutions.
Neither should it be a mechanism of virtual signalling, a means to display you are "with the programme" and sometimes even to show off your superior knowledge.
New Zealanders are at different stages with knowledge of te reo.
The changes are already astonishing. It wasn’t so long ago, in 1984, that a telephone operator was told to stop using the "kia ora" greeting and remain with the standard: "Tolls here. Number please." She was stood down when she refused.
Public debate ensued and the kia ora ban was eventually lifted. The operator was given her job back.
In certain institutions these days — including, some say, the University of Otago — the pendulum has swung so that staff can feel pressured to use Māori greetings and sign-offs whether they are comfortable with that or not, certainly in official communications.
There can also be pressure to begin meetings with karakia (prayers or incantations). A gathering few words can have a useful role in focusing a meeting and its participants.
It should be fine if meeting leaders choose to do so and fine if they don’t. Both should be respected.
Awareness of traditional Māori views and something about te ao Māori (the Māori world) is important in many contexts.
However, adherence only to the authorised understandings of Te Tiriti should not be mandatory.
Societies need different perspectives; however right and even self-evident we may think our "truth" is. All sorts of matters should be able to be discussed and considered.
