Mark, this is attracting interest precisely because of its place in the wider discourse about race.

Yes, and that's never a bad thing, I guess I should really celebrate the fact that the cost of changing a plethora of signs etc. is cheaper than introducing 2 years compulsory Te Reo…

Unless you're arguing that it's all pointless and that any 'authentic' Te Reo would require the wholesale abandonment of written language. And I rather think Maori should be the judge of the wisdom of that.

Yes, pretty much exactly what I was driving at when I said...

ie. to the…

As I began "Any argument either way is cultural imperialism"

Even an argument for Maori correcting a Maori word to better reflect the way it's spoken in their own language?

Sorry, I don't get it. Unless you're arguing that it's all pointless and that any 'authentic' Te Reo would require…

I think in this case Sam though it is complicated, as in "their own freaking words" the 'their' is who? who owns a language? Those who identify themselves as Maori? Is it in the blood in that those with a greater percentage of maori blood…

Were a sign for W(h)anganui to accord
total respect for the intrinsic features of the Maori language it would read "___ "

Um. Not meaning to come across rude, but...

In the absence of what you might call a perfectly 'authentic' system for doing the Maori language justice in written…

Now, the Roman alphabetization's foothold on the consciousness seems to have usurped the inherent oralness and previously unquantifiable beauty the language possessed prior to the…

Mr Laws said both names had co-existed since 1991 – neither the council nor the community had sought to declare one choice as the "winner" and the other as the "loser".

Because that's what democracy's all about.

abeltasman1 says:

Wanganui if democracy means anything in this country, While we are at it how about fixing the bigger picture options
a) Nieuw Zeeland (original )
b) New Sealand ( english translation)
c) New Zeeland ( compromise)

geekiness

Think you answered yr own question. :)

Racism matters when it's exercised by a group with a power relationship to a weaker group.

Which means it was racist when the brown boys bullied me in PE at good old Tokoroa High for my pale geekiness?

I think we should take the 'h' out of Thames and give it to Wanganui, they dont use it.

Thought Chris Knox was the odd one out myself.

Yeah. While the intricacies of pakeha culture and its on-again-off-again honours system are a little beyond me, 'Sir' Chris Knox seems less likely than 'Sir' Dave Dobbyn. Or even 'Sir' Buzzy Bee.

As far as I'm concerned, that argument is correct. Racism matters…

Pavlova, whitebait patties, afghan and anzac biscuits, Buzzy Bee, Phar Lap and Cardigan Bay, Sir Colin Meads and Sir Richard Hadlee, Speights, Lord Rutherford, Chris Knox and Dave Dobbyn, Katherine Mansfield and James K Baxter.
No Pakeha culture? Yeah, right.

That'd be the James K. Baxter who, commenting on the…

Its original name was 'Otago' but European officials who had learned Māori in the North Island, visiting in the 1840s changed it to 'Otakou', believing…

Otago was a current…

It's called Christchurch isn't it?

(sorry: just anticipating the responses from elsewhere ...)

Which would be why I'm leaving the place as soon as my degree is put away.

No Pakeha culture

They do realise that Pakeha is...a Maori word?

Personally, I'm sympathetic to that idea and think they should go for an official dual spelling: Wanganui/Whanganui. As they should also do Christchurch/Otautahi and so on.

Hmm. Christchurch isn't a mispelling of Otautahi.

Otago comes from Maori (though I suspect it's mispelled/pronounced) I believe which is an interesting comparison.

Pavlova, whitebait patties, afghan and anzac biscuits, Buzzy Bee, Phar Lap and Cardigan Bay, Sir Colin Meads and Sir Richard Hadlee, Speights, Lord Rutherford, Chris Knox and Dave Dobbyn, Katherine Mansfield and James…

(sorry: just anticipating the responses from elsewhere ...)

Laws is one of those who is big on the idea that a separate Pakeha culture has developed here over the past 170 or so years — distinct from both Maori culture and British culture of the early 19th century, and distinct from biculturalism too (doesn't leave much).

That's so..dull.…

Friday Gold: An email exchange with Michael Laws

Don't say we don't bring you the hits.

As always, lots of new music, articles, reviews and so on posted at Elsewhere.

What, no Big Star box set review?

I was fascinated by the way that he suddenly seemed to get all 'indigenous' on TV last night, claiming it was an attack on the 'mana' of the people of Wanganui.

Does he normally put on pretensions of cultural sensitivity, or was it just his cunning ploy to 'undercut the…

Does he normally put on pretensions of cultural sensitivity, or was it just his cunning ploy to 'undercut the…

Ha — you obviously missed the referendum where Laws voted that he'd always pronounced it that way.

And note his extended lesson on the correct phrasing of 'foul swoop'. He was most insistent that 'foul' is the right word. Lhaws' agenda is becoming clear – a whole new language, one…

Then there was the rise of those banshee feminists who demanded equal pay for equal work and many right-thinking people — women among them — thought that that was not only outrageous but would destroy the family unit and bankrupt the country.

Pay equity hasn't happened yet. Banshee feminists (and…

Maybe a' Fashion Week' instead...oops didnt they just ban certain types of fashion?

World City of Literature it is then.

isn't "racist" but "ray-schist"

Ha — you obviously missed the referendum where Laws voted that he'd always pronounced it that way. So don't attempt to 'shut down' his democratic rights, Graham. 'Cause that makes you, like, just as bad as Hitler.

By the way, and to change the subject slightly,…

Isnt Dunedin home of the Undie 500 the ancient Gaelic name for Edinburgh. Pehaps the Scots might want their name back

Best answer I've had

Dun-Edin = fort-hill

Edin-Burgh = hill-town(castle?)

People will tell you all sorts of things, mind.

Maybe we make Whanganui a world heritage site or apply for a Unesco World City of Literature or something as a consolation prize for adding the 'h'

Sounds like a retread of the shonky 80s pipe dream to turn W(h)anganui into a kind of low-budget HQ for the Olympic movement…

Hitler probably didn't enjoy the "majority support" of Germans until sometime around the reoccupation of the Rhineland, and he probably wasn't even hugely popular until after the victory over the Anglo-French in 1940.

This is an area I really want to get to grips with in detail sometime. I do…

The previous name, “Auschwitz Concentration Camp,” has been changed to “'Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Nazi German Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945).”

http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=470&Itemid=8

Who…

A nation that may otherwise have thought “Why bother?” is now right behind the change.

The concept that a referendum should decide a place name is a banal one. I bet a referendum to change the name…

Loving the new edit option, BTW.

No one is actually going to be hurt by the name correction, although Laws would have us believe there will be rioting in the streets when the good folks get really riled up.

I believe Canterbury ENSOC can help him with that. They're looking for a place to go next…

Hitler and the NSDAP got 33% in the 1932 election that resulted in his being appointed Chancellor in January 1933. He then used the Reichstag fire in February 1933 to get the senile Hindenburg to effectively suspend the constitution.

Hitler probably didn't enjoy the "majority support" of Germans until…