January 20, 2021
Reo rankles Grey Power
An Opotiki District Councillor plans to complain to the Race Relations Commissioner over a Whakatane Grey Power newsletter that claimed he insulted other guests at a meeting by giving a karakia in te reo Māori.
In the newsletter, meeting organiser Siva Panadam said she “had no idea that councillor Louis Rapihana did not speak English, otherwise I would have got someone to interpret considering 90 percent of the attendees were non-Māori.”
She said if the use of Māori without a translation was deliberate, “then it was an insult to both our speakers, neither of whom spoke Māori.”
Mr Rapihana told Local Democracy Reporting he was asked to open and close the meeting, which he did in his natural reo. “I do not translate my prayers because it is not for the people to hear; it's only for the man above," he said.
He said no concerns were raised at the meeting over his use of te reo.
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