‘Murder’ of Maori tongue

Press, 14 March 1978, Page 3

‘Murder’ of Maori tongue

PA Auckland Maori pronunciation on radio and television is getting worse and Maoris are blocking their ears rather than daily hearing something sacred being mangled, says Selwyn Muru, a Maori broadcaster. After eight years with Radio New Zealand, Mr Muru is leaving to join the Department of Maori Affairs as a national co-ordinator in public relations.

In the "old days” rural broadcasters and sports announcers were the culprits who murdered the Maori language. Today, Mr Muru says, it is the announcers, too.

Maoris did their best to give dignity to the English language, he said. At least the pakeha could try to do the same.

“The only way to respect a race is to do justice to its language,” said Mr Muru,! who was responsible for “Te Puna Wai Korero,” a popular national radio programme on Maori affairs on Saturday mornings. On Sundays, he produced “Te Reo O Te Pipiwharauroa,” a programme in Maori on current issues, customs, and traditions. But he leaves critical of broadcasting. Creativity, he says, cannot be truly fulfilled in broadcasting “because they seem to thrive on mediocrity.” Only political manoeuvouring had led to establishment of the Maori and Polynesian section of Radio New Zealand, last year, he said. The new television hierachy still denied Maoris and Pacific Islanders access to the media.

Polynesian programmes were “relegated to the bottom of the heap,” he said. “Polynesians have a very cynical view now, because even animal shows get peaktime viewing,” said Mr Muru.

“Pakehas can talk multiculturalism until they are blue in the face, but until these avenues are open to us, multiculturalism means nothing to us. “If it is good enough to run a whole day of boring cricket, it is good enough to have a television van covering an important function at a marae,” Mr Muru said.