Te Wiki o te Reo Māori / Māori Language Week began almost 60 years ago, nine years before a post office telephone operator’s use of the greeting kia ora resulted in her being demoted.
The ensuing controversy in 1984 eventually prompted the intervention of Prime Minister Robert Muldoon and the telephone operator, now Dame Naida Glavish, returned to her old job.
We can look at that example and collectively pat ourselves on the back about the progress which has been made since.
Such an outcry over kia ora would be hard to imagine now.
This week, clothing produced to celebrate Te Wiki sold out within minutes across the country.
But the enthusiasm for this resurgence has not been universal. It is not hard to find pockets of grumpiness, and we have felt it at this newspaper, about increasing use of the language in our everyday lives and even the promotion of correct pronunciation of Māori place names.
It will be tricky to ensure progress continues without alienating those who might be reluctant starters or steadfastly opposed to any use of Māori being incorporated into their day-to-day existence.
This week’s theme is ‘‘Ake ake ake - A Forever Language’’.
Māori Language Commission chief executive Ngahiwi Apanui-Barr wants us to see te reo Māori as New Zealand’s language, the only one which ‘‘belongs to this place’’.
‘‘We can’t go somewhere else to get it back. If it dies here, it dies here,’’ he told RNZ.
The commission’s vision is for a bilingual Aotearoa.
Mr Apanui-Barr says seven out of 10 New Zealanders value te reo Māori as part of our national identity, which suggests we have a considerable way to go.
Progress towards greater use of the language is not helped by the mixed messaging we get from politicians.
This week, members of the coalition government might be keen to show their reverence and support for the language, but that does not align with earlier actions.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis stirred up a faux controversy about bonuses being paid to public servants for learning Māori. That looked particularly desperate and petty when it was revealed that Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s te reo lessons had been paid for by the taxpayer.
Then there was the re-ordering of names on government departments so the English ones come first. The silliness of this aptly demonstrated by Housing Minister Chris Bishop not seeming to know what the English name of Kainga Ora was.
If the change was supposed to lessen confusion, it has added to it since there does not seem to have been a universal approach by ministers.
While some names have officially been swapped, many members of the public are likely to still be using the Māori names because they had become used to them.
In a different political universe that might have been seen as a good thing, a nudge in the direction of greater bilingualism.
We also had the spectre of the Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith telling his staff to simplify an invitation sent to his Australian counterpart for Matariki celebrations including removing the word Aotearoa and the greeting tēnā koe.
Perhaps we haven’t come as far from 1984 as we thought.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown’s objection to Waka Kotahi plans for bilingual road signs has been hard to understand, given their wide use in other countries.
They were only to be installed once existing signs wore out or were damaged. In February, he said a decision on their future was weeks away, but we have heard nothing further.
If the coalition wanted to redeem its tattered te reo record slightly, this week would be a great time to announce it was going ahead with the bilingual road signs.
In the words of that famous monolingual sign, yeah, right.
