M\u0101ori linguist Vincent Olsen-Reeder has had enough of social media outrage masquerading as reo M\u0101ori discourse \u2013 and of the media that keeps feeding it.<\/p>\n
Are you really M\u0101ori if you speak M\u0101ori? Should w\u0101hine speak M\u0101ori before getting moko kauae? Should w\u0101hine be allowed to speak on the marae?<\/p>\n
These are the questions many M\u0101ori are often asked for their opinions on. In a clip from an interview<\/a> that is doing the rounds on social media, a group of reo M\u0101ori speakers is asked whether they think being able to speak M\u0101ori \u201cmakes you more M\u0101ori\u201d. While most say whakapapa is enough, one respondent says he believes having the ability to speak te reo does make you more M\u0101ori. The question and that particular response has drawn the ire of many, provoking what seems to be an age old debate around what defines a \u201cM\u0101ori\u201d?<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been in the M\u0101ori language world since 2008. Over time, social media has become the main way people with an interest in te reo M\u0101ori stay up to date on the latest happenings in the language world. We\u2019re so spread out and it\u2019s nice for those interested to come together in some way. I used to have to wait for M\u0101ori news shows Te K\u0101ea and Te Karere to air \u2013 and hope I was free to watch them.<\/p>\n Despite everyone saying \u201che taonga te reo\u201d all the time, it\u2019s pretty hard to get people to do something that really enacts that statement. It takes many hours for language people like me to motivate someone, and it\u2019s really easy to shut that motivation down to a point they will opt to spend their time doomscrolling, instead of learning a language.<\/p>\n In Minority Rules, author Ash Sarkar teaches us the algorithms of social media platforms are driven only by rage. Not what\u2019s cool, not what people are buying, not advertising, not a \u201c#FYP\u201d. Pure human rage.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not surprising then, that any kaip\u0101p\u0101ho would spend much of their time rage-baiting. It\u2019s easy \u2013 the algorithm does their job for them. So many have spent far too long chasing M\u0101ori angst over the same three things: the fake M\u0101oriness quantum, prerequisites for t\u0101 moko, and the linguistic role women play in our society.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since at least 2008, those same stories have popped up every few months or so. In that time too, nothing about the dialogue has changed. There are no new additions to the conversation. There is no change in the spirit of the dialogue. Sometimes, the people interviewed don\u2019t even change. It\u2019s always the same story as the last one. If the rage-temptation is resisted and we look for substance, it\u2019s actually pretty boring.<\/p>\n There are very real issues pertaining to te reo M\u0101ori that merit rage. The State of Te Reo M\u0101ori Report<\/a> was released last month and no media platforms extensively covered it, unlike the Oranga Tamariki report released in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since 2014, the government has known it doesn\u2019t collect data about te reo M\u0101ori well \u2013 it\u2019s written data guides<\/a> about it. On the outside, we\u2019ve worked hard<\/a> to get that corrected and it would be very easy to do so. The data about the M\u0101ori language could be excellent, but at the moment our ability to truly understand the health of te reo M\u0101ori is being unnecessarily impeded.\u00a0<\/p>\n Do people know what\u2019s going on with our M\u0101ori-speaking men? Because there are barely any left and they feel more negative about te reo M\u0101ori than women.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the flip-side, do people know just how much our w\u0101hine contribute to the survival of te reo M\u0101ori? That in itself is worthy of recognition. We should have several more Dames than we currently do. Who\u2019s raising their profile?<\/p>\n Some stative verbs, like m\u0101rama, mau and wareware were changing verb class before the arrival of English. As a linguist, I\u2019m not so worried about those, so long as the sentence aligns grammatically. But there are other words, such as mutu and oti, that are also changing class now. That certainly looks to be an English influence, and that influence should be cause for concern. People like me are trying to monitor that, but there\u2019s only so much we can write, publish, kauhau and put on social media. At some point, shouldn\u2019t our media outlets be doing their bit too?<\/p>\n Surely, a media platform that truly believes te reo M\u0101ori is a taonga will look beyond its rage metrics because I, as a consumer of their stories who also believes te reo is a taonga, do not care about that. Rage topics are not new, they\u2019re not relevant, they\u2019re not necessary and they\u2019re certainly not a good use of the intelligent minds M\u0101ori media calls on. We are smart, analytical people. Who cares about a fabricated language-blood quantum?<\/p>\n In watching this kind of thing play out again, I observed how some social media accounts \u2013 accounts I mostly agree with \u2013 also use that rage bait for what looks to be personal gain. By providing a swift amount of rage response, I think I can see how they capitalise on that anger to ride the algorithm wave towards their own follower count. That keeps the siloed discussion going longer and legitimises to media outfits that this is what we are interested in as a people.<\/p>\n Seeing this has made me post my own opinions on social media in ways they likely won\u2019t be seen or picked up by as many people. I use my limited knowledge of what social media demands and do the opposite: Boring, long text on an Instagram story. I do that because I want a counter-opinion sitting somewhere, but I am also trying not to align too heavily with the algorithm of rage.<\/p>\n M\u0101ori m\u0101 \u2013 you are not a consumer of social media. You are the product and the service. That is also wisdom I take from Ash Sakar, and she\u2019s absolutely correct. He taonga te riri. You are selling your rage and heightened blood pressure for nothing.<\/p>\n The rage of racism already forces M\u0101ori language content into that angry sphere. Can\u2019t we do something else?<\/p>\n