A teacher teaches

Racism is a funny (not ha ha) old thing - race is a discredited concept so how does racism work? - based on generalisations about what people see and/or hear and the misconceptions that people have about the groups being generalised. Denigrating people by ridiculing them and disrespecting them, and for indigenous people, doing the same to their culture too, creates distress for the people unfairly targeted. The Green Island Postshop/Kiwibank, just out of Dunedin, has got a few questions to answer after this appaling example of disrespect. From ODT

"Asked to provide the name of the account by the female teller, she answered "Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Otepoti".

"She just laughed. And then she got her manager and said, 'Come and listen to this'," Miss Amiria Stirling said.

She repeated "Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Otepoti" to the pair, and then a nearby cafe worker was invited by the bank staff to listen as she repeated the school's name for a third time.

To add further insult, when asked her surname to complete the transaction, she was told it "was much better" to understand, before being farewelled with "kakariki", which translates to "green", as she left the building.

This is just appaling - I am going to give them a point for attempting to say goodbye in te reo because at least they tried. And it is fair to say that the first time you hear Otepoti (awe-tay-paw-tee) it can sound a little funny to uneducated ears - but still that is no reason to insult the woman. These people never considered that their actions were hurtful, it just didn't enter their head. Are they racist? No more than many others, certainly they are culturally insenstive and I hope they feel ashamed and tidy up their act, but I suspect they may be going, "What is the problem", "I have lots of maori friends", "People are just too PC and oversenstive", "It was just a bit of fun".

Anyway, what has been the result so far

"Miss Stirling said she was stunned by the incident and, after consultation, decided to write letters of complaint to the bank and members of Parliament, stating, "Our school chose Kiwibank because it's a bank for everyone.

"A founding belief of our school is that all languages and cultures are precious. All languages and cultures should be uplifted and celebrated, never laughed at."

The letter finished with an open invitation for branch staff to come to the school, which has a roll of 10, and to participate in free Te Reo Maori lessons.

Miss Stirling said the incident would serve as a lesson for the schoolchildren on conflict resolution, and the school was likely to continue using the branch in the future.

I would be very happy for Miss Amiria Stirling to teach my son - a brilliant example of mana and how to make lemonade from a couple of lemons. Thank you Amiria for this lesson.

Hat tip - Halfdone

kiwi are not commodities

I oppose sending our endemic fauna overseas to zoos and other institutions. News that 5 kiwi have been sent overseas is sad. These birds, our birds, whakapapa here and for them to be bought up and live in a zoo overseas shows what we really think of these birds - that they are a commodity, a thing to be used to build prestige or even up the wildlife that come here to our zoos.

From NZH

"American researchers studying ways to breed kiwi in captivity are about to receive their first delivery of the shy brown birds for almost 20 years.

Five North Island brown kiwi were packed into crates and put on a plane to Los Angeles yesterday evening, destined for new homes at San Diego Wild Animal Park, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia and Frankfurt Zoo in Germany.

The two pairs and a female will join an expat population of about 39 kiwi - 23 living in Europe and 16 in America.

This idea that they can help our breeding program from overseas is a red herring in my view. They want to learn how to breed in captivity to increase the numbers of birds - in zoos, in captivity.

"The Smithsonian got its first pair of kiwi in 1968 as a gift to the US Government from then New Zealand Prime Minister Keith Holyoake. They produced the first chick born outside of New Zealand in 1975, a male which is still alive and entertaining visitors at the zoo.

A spokeswoman for Auckland Zoo, which hatched and reared the birds being exported this week, said they were needed overseas to inject some genetic diversity into the small populations.

To me it is exploitation without consideration for the individual birds or the species. I just don't trust their motives or reasons.

Kiwibank - use Kiwis or change your name

There's something about the Kiwibank anti aussie ads (join the resistance) that hasn't worked for me. You don't need to bring others down to boost yourself up. The unique offering of Kiwibank is well known, they don't need to thrash it, it's overkill and it a bit like, "Methinks he doth protest too much".

The other angle I dislike is the use of D-Day and WW2 resistance imagery. Why go that way and make fun of the people that died in horrible circumstances, and the many more adversely affected, around that world event? Why go there?

I generally like Kiwibank and I believe in going as local as you can for everything.

The news that Kiwibank is using an aussie call centre just increases my unease.

Tidy up your act Kiwibank, walk the walk don't just talk the talk.