Dame Naida Glavish says it’s her right, and the right of any New Zealander, to speak te reo Māori.
This comes amid claims from a Health NZ - Te Whatu Ora staff member that her manager banned her from using te reo greetings and signoffs in emails.
Health NZ said such a ban was not agency policy and that te reo Māori was an “official and cherished language of this country”.
Forty years ago, Dame Naida Glavish was almost fired for greeting callers with “Kia ora” when she was working as a toll operator for the New Zealand Post Office.
Now she’s fired up again in defence of te reo Māori in the workplace, following a Health NZ - Te Whatu Ora staffer’s claim in a Reddit post that her manager banned her from using “Kia ora” and “Ngā mihi” in her emails to patients.
Glavish said she was shocked that the same thing that happened to her was happening again, 40 years later.
‘It hurts’
“I’m surprised, I’m shocked, but also not so much, given the government that we’ve got in here at this very moment,” she said.
“It hurts for the work that has been done over all these years. To have it razed under this government, I’m not surprised. But it’s not acceptable … to object to [te reo Māori] in this country.”
In a statement, Health NZ’s chief people officer Andrew Slater said the advice referred to in the post was not part of the agency’s policy, and did not represent its views.
“We absolutely allow and encourage our people to use te reo Māori. It is an official and cherished language of the country,” he said.
“While we don’t know the particulars of this case, it is possible there may have been an overreaction by one manager trying to protect a staff member from further abuse.
“However, we’re very disappointed if there was any instruction to discontinue te reo in patient communications. That won’t be happening,” Slater said.
Kia Ora debate
Glavish sparked a national debate when she stood up for her right to say “kia ora” in her workplace. Airline pilots started greeting passengers with “kia ora”. People flooded the Post Office switchboards, wanting to talk to the “kia ora lady”. Overseas toll operators used their indigenous greetings when calling New Zealand.
Then National cabinet minister and postmaster-general Rob Talbot backed Glavish’s supervisor, who had threatened her with dismissal over the greeting, arguing a large number of people did not understand the meaning of the phrase.
But then prime minister Robert Muldoon came home from an overseas trip amid the furore and declared Glavish could answer the phone however she pleased, as long as she didn’t use the Australian greeting “G’day, blue”.
For the reo Māori champion, it’s simple: “There is no way that anything, or anyone in this country will ever, ever be able to stop me from using our reo.
“It’s my right,” Glavish said. “And I will exercise my right, as it is for anyone who believes that they are New Zealanders in this country. If they object, they’re in the wrong country.
“It’s indigenous to this country. No one can deny the right to use it here. Absolutely no one.”
Despite everything, Glavish said she believes Aotearoa has grown a lot in 40 years in accepting, embracing and using te reo Māori.
- Stuff