Comments by "MountainMaid" (@MountainMaid238) on "Māori reporter’s hilarious attempts at saying THAT long Welsh place name | TVNZ Breakfast" video.

@Wenny Jester Granted, they usually correct those who live in New Zealand who mispronounce Māori words - especially people who have lived here all their lives and still can't get it right. She's attempting to pronounce a name from an entirely different country, one she wasn't born to or lives in, and is doing a great job. The politics are not necessary here.
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@Wenny Jester Interesting. You ask to not be written off, but you make the argument that less than 10% of Māori are fluent. And...so what? And if you are Māori, are you part of the population working tirelessly to restore a language to a multicultural nation who's heritage this language belongs to? It's not just Māori who need and deserve Te Reo, everyone who lives here need it and deserve it. This isn't the post to discuss intergenerational trauma from colonisation or politics, but it's heading there. On another note, did you know that nearly 20 years ago Te Reo experts shared the success model of how New Zealand was bringing back Te Reo with the Welsh? Welsh or Gaelic speaker were losing their language too, so I love seeing a Māori woman speak their sounds, has a kind of full circle karmic satisfaction to it.
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I agree that some people are sensitive and perceive being told to pronounce words correctly is stinging to them. I have an unusual name and I help people to say it properly. It's only polite.
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@dragonrings14 Just... ugh, no. I understand what you're trying to say, and dialects and mita aside, there is a linguistic pattern that Te Reo follows regardless of regional variations. What the other poster was attempting to do was drown out an Indigenous woman's knowledge with her second hand and probably half listened-to understanding. The pronunciation sounds exactly how a western thinker would wrap their mind and tongue around a Māori word and concept. And that's kei te pai, be that way if that's what you are, but don't flip off an Indigenous woman's stand for her people, land and language and not get your kumu handed back to you, perhaps a little rosier than before 🤣 Man this was ages ago and I haven't even gone back to read it, and I still remember the hoha 😂 Oops so went back and read and nope wrong thread, oh well lol
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@dragonrings14 All that tip toeing though - doesn't your ankles get sore from all the people pleasing? Non-maori can be of this nation, but indigenous describes those of us born from ancestors literally of this land (others, non - homo sapien) and Māori. Now, other people's feelings are their own and if they get hurt feelings from those of us reclaiming who WE are - that's about THEM. I've been traumatized, marginalized and silenced for far too long to give up any more of my space to those who don't need it as desperately as little indigenous babies do. I am sick sick sick to death of hearing even now, in 2023 that our indigenous babies feel subhuman, in their own land. And then they kill themselves. I believe it's progressive to be speak to the truth, our truth, to who we are, and will be. There is nothing more progressive than ensuring vulnerable indigenous youth know that we need them to grow old, we need their minds and thoughts and feelings, the good and the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. I'm Moriori, Māori, Kāhui maunga and I have rapist soldier DNA from Taranaki. There is very few land in New Zealand that claims me as theirs, because land is an Ancestor. I am not a New Zealander, that's not my identity. It's my category given via government. I am indigenous, and I'm not the only. And when I speak to our Indigeneity, that is a very specific topic. Those of us who speak to the indigenous experience are being specific. This is not a subject to be silenced anymore.
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@dragonrings14 what makes you think you have the monopoly on compassion and respect? How do you define it? Who told you that is what it looks like, sounds like, presents itself? Modern day Western psychology pronounces that other people's interpretations belong to them, and if they have emotions about something, it is up to that individual to work out what hurt them and why. No one else's. 'Since when have Māori not been Māori ' - do you know nothing of the suffering of the indigenous people of this land? It's not my job to educate you, but how about you start with the Tohunga Suppression Act and work around there. Tohi rites, karakia, oriori - all those technologies and more that thrived and nourished our ancestors, used everyday, before, during and after work or any activity. We can't be Māori like that, we're not allowed. We must park our darky ways outside of places defined by Pākeha as secular spaces. Butcher yourselves please, for the good of a nation 👍 ka pai. You use words like nation with a non-Maori lens and good for you if that way of being suits you. Assimilate away. But egalitarianism is what actually enslaves people. We are all not the same, and we're not meant to be. I'm neurodivergent, and that's ok. The world doesn't need me and others with differences to 'whitewash' themselves, the world needs authentic neurodivergent indigenous worldviews in all it's glory. And by golly they shall be blessed with it. Diversity is brilliant, bright and colourful when it is simply allowed to be. Racists will be racist and nothing indigenous people do can change their closed minds. They'll come up with any excuse. 'Your word choices makes me feel bad'. So it is best to not pander to them and allow them to mellow in their own indignant anger. They're doing it anyway. 🤦 I love that I do not claim to be a New Zealander. I am not dutch (Zeeland), and I never agreed to the backward society I'm born into. I wish I was less intelligent (one of neurodiversities) so I could see less and therefore want less for myself and settle for what there is. Ignorance would be bliss for what I can't unsee and know. What makes you think being Māori and Moriori makes me conflicted? That's not where my conflict lies, that is too - basic. What would I have to be uncertain of between Māori and Moriori? What happened there was straightforward and easy to understand. The colonisation of an occupied country - messy and illegal as hell. And then the names of rapists and peadophiles adorn our streets and statues. So proud. I belong and am the land as are the people I was born to (ancient non-Māori) hence Tangata Whenua, and the politics others concern themselves with when it comes to identity is not my business. But my voice, the voice of this land, indigenous and proud, will unapologetically karanga any and everyway it authentically can.
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