I love the words of a wonderful colleague of mine who says that we live in a multicultural society in a bi-cultural nation. If you don't like that, you may want to stop reading now, because you are not going to like the rest of this post.
A part of our biculturalism is our multilingual status (three official languages as I understand it - Te Reo Māori, English, and Sign). I have only a small knowledge of Te Reo Māori so far, something I am working on. In my opinion it's a beautiful language, a tāonga for Aoteoroa: it is the only place in the world in which Te Reo Māori is spoken. There isn't a 'somewhere else' that you can go to speak it. It is beholding on us both morally and legally to sustain and grow the language. Lorraine and I attended two night classes run by Anton Matthews here in Christchurch, introductory classes to Te Reo. He expressed the desire to see us all normalise the use of te Reo, even if it is as simple as saying Kia ora. I love that.
In that spirit, one of my goals for Hornby High School is that we hear Māori spoken as often as English around the kura. It's a BHAG, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, but I love ambition. A part of that journey for me (on top of the deliberate an intentional work I do to expand my vocabulary and understanding) is that I greet everyone at our kura in Te Reo, without exception .. normally a 'Kia ora', sometimes a 'mōrena', or an 'ata marie', or even a 'tēnā koe' .. you get the idea. In my head that has become normalised, and that's what I want to happen across the kura. You have to start somewhere.
Now here's the thing: as a result I simply do that whenever greet people, on the street, in a shop, wherever. This afternoon I was in our front garden pottering away (dead heading flowers actually, not that that matters), and several groups of people walked past, out for a stroll in the first sun we have seen for three or four days. I automatically said 'Kia ora'. The responses gave me pause to think, to feel sad, to feel sick in fact. In each case. the people immediately looked away, and did not return the greeting.
Why?
Maybe they didn't hear me. I doubt it, we were pretty close. Maybe they were embarrassed and not sure how to respond. Possibly, but all three groups? Maybe there was an assumption about my race, and so a discomfort.. I suspect so. I am of European descent by the way.
What does this all mean? Well, I can't draw any conclusion with any certainty, but I have a suspicion. My suspicion is that what I was seeing was racism. There was this assumption about me which then evoked the 'look away and ignore' response. From my position of white privilege I guess I have the luxury of assuming the best - that it was not racism. I am choosing not to make that assumption, but rather to suspect that racism is exactly what I was seeing. It was bloody uncomfortable.
So my suggestion to you: as a social experiment (and also as a way of supporting the use of the second of our aural languages in Aotearoa), just try greeting everyone with kia ora, or tēnā koe, rather than hello. See what happens, see how it feels. At the very least you will help normalise the language. I actually hope however that you may also see just how close to the surface you will find an underlying racism. It is only from a place of personal of discomfort, I think, that those of us with our 'white privilege' will make the changes that we need if we are to be a genuinely bicultural nation.
I will persist with my BHAG.. I will persist in my use of Te Reo Māori, not in a way meant to intimidate, but rather in my intent to normalise its use. After all, you don't see that response in Canada where French and English are both official language!! But of course both of those languages are spoken by those of European descent.
Kia tau te mauri
Robin
No comments:
Post a Comment