Radio host Guyon Espiner is normalising te reo Maori. Photo/File
Radio host Guyon Espiner is normalising te reo Maori. Photo/File
Kei hea te pūtea?
"Show me the money", asked National radio's morning talk show host Guyon Espiner, when questioning Auckland Mayor Phill Goff, about where the funding for a future transport project was coming from.
Who would have thought the Tom Cruise classic one liner from the blockbuster Jerry Maguire movie would show up a decade or two later, quoted in the indigenous language of a country where long white clouds are being lifted all over the place - when it comes to cultural coolness?
When Guyon Espiner first started greeting us loyal listeners with a morning mihi (greeting) it was for many a dawn chorus, telling us everything is going to be kapai.
No reira - however, it wasn't all kei te pai (sweet as) when he kicked it off - far from it. The racehorses of racism were saddling up their Twitter accounts and the criticism came quicker than a Melbourne Cup winner.
"What the feck is the meaning of your gibberish greeting?" grumbled another.
"Does he come with a grass skirt and dance with a spear too? How long before you have to wear shoe polish on your face?"
Then like a turning tide on full moon, the criticism waned and the tautoko (compliments) started coming in.
"Oh a few still come in" says Espiner - more recently from Pākeha saying they are learning and want me to slow down so they can pick up the days and the dates. They're genuine messages sent in good faith."
In a small way, a new normal has been established. On Morning Report, a 'mainstream' news programme, you are going to hear greetings, temperatures, phrases, sentences, questions and place names - in Māori.
Who knows - the day may come when the Melbourne Cup will be called in te reo Maori and whoever shot the Barmen will be jumping for joy as his hoiho (horse) comes flying down the home straight, only to be pipped by Zac Purton on Max Dynamite and your putea (pinga - money) has gone tipi haere (walkabout) forever (mai rano).
Kei hea te pūtea? Show me the money could be the catch cry for punters tomorrow.
Tamati Coffey has received negative feedback from his use of te reo Maori. Photo/File
More recently, Tamati Coffey has been getting the bash by the same Ngati Whingers for normalising te reo Maori, and he too has weathered the whinging storm until the tide is now turning, as it did for Guyon Espiner.
Moving Out is a TVNZ show that follows the fortunes of city dwellers attempting to forge new lives in provincial New Zealand.
Funded by the Māori broadcasting funding agency Te Māngai Pāho to the tune of $420,000 for 10 episodes, it contains about 10 per cent Māori language content, most of which is subtitled in English.
TV Guide's reader feedback column Mr Telly has also received several letters complaining about Coffey's use of te reo on the show.
"By all means be proud of your heritage but you will lose a lot of people's admiration if you continue speaking in dual tongue - you have not been elected to the Maori party."
Te Mangai Paho chief executive Larry Parr said there would always be "rednecks" who criticised the use of the language in mainstream media but their strategy was to get the majority of the population more engaged with Māori.
For my two bobs' worth of tautoko (support) we are well on the way to finding our long lost identity in this wonderful country we get to call home, something we all should celebrate for no other reason than we can.
Recently I have been and seen how our Aboriginal whanau are being treated across the Ditch and how their native tongue has tasted the torture of unforgettable racism to the degree where they could be shot without punishment 50 years ago.
The last words of this column belong to Boori Monty Pryor - one of my favourite indigenous children's authors.
His children's book Shake a Leg (2010) illustrated by Jan Ormerod is a toanga (treasure) like no other for us all to learn from.
You can see why from the inspired image on the front cover, black and white kids together, the white kid learning the Shake a Leg welcome dance.
It shows indigenous people successfully retaining their ancient culture while living in the modern world.
When we measure mana as a currency of success in this country and normalise our Maori language, we will create a pathway for many other impoverished indigenous cultures to follow.
The steps taken by Guyon Espiner and Tamati Coffee are bold as they are beautiful and ones our tamariki of tomorrow will find easier than perhaps we have to walk along.
