A chip off the racism block: How Whittaker's reo Māori wrapper reveals Aotearoa's true colours
Thursday, 18 August 2022
It’s not about the chocolate, it’s what the chocolate represents, Dr Moana Waitoki says.
Read this story in te reo Māori and English here / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei.
“Whether it’s te reo Māori chocolate, te reo Māori signs, Three Waters, or co-governance, anything to do with the visibility of Māori is triggering for some people, and that stems from assumptions of superiority, and it stems from assumptions of Māori being less valuable,” the New Zealand Psychological Society president said.
On Tuesday, Whittaker’s chocolate was on the shelves of every supermarket as usual, but this time one of it’s highest sellers, Creamy Milk, had a new wrapper.
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The front read Miraka Kirīmi, the te reo Māori translation for Creamy Milk. For a limited time across August and September, Whittaker’s has chosen to support Te Wiki o te Reo Māori by rebranding its label in one of the nation’s official languages.
For some, it was a sight for sore eyes, a moment of progression not usually seen on the shelves of their local.
For others, it stirred something inside them that they felt the need to unleash.
Online, a battle began between those who didn’t want change, while others returned the challenge, questioning their negativity and praising Whittaker’s for supporting Māori Language Week.
But it’s just a block of chocolate, right? Why has it sparked such a strong response?
Waitoki (Ngāti Hako, Ngāti Māhanga) said the negative backlash seen across social media is connected to the devaluation of tangata whenua. It can also be called white supremacy, she said.
“White supremacy is the assumption that white is the gold standard so to go in and see Māori on a chocolate bar is triggering because we’ve stepped out of our place.
“We’re not allowed to actually have visible kupu Māori [Māori words] every day in a public space without sections of society piling on and denigrating Māori.”
Across the chocolate aisle, foreign languages can be found, such as the Swiss Lindt chocolate blocks or the Italian Ferrero Rocher balls, but when it comes to Aotearoa’s own language that’s where some draw the line, Waitoki said.
“You can have multiple languages on display, but you put te reo Māori there and it’s a trigger, because we’re meant to stay in our place.
“But we have never done that, and we never will.”
Thirty-five years ago this month the Māori Language Act was passed. It was a significant step towards reo Māori revitalisation, Waitoki said.
“[But] 35 years later a business has come out and said we're going to step in, we're going to do our part for language revitalisation, and it’s unacceptable.
“That is dehumanising me and dehumanising Māori culture to say that our language is not valuable or important when we’ve been fighting to retain it for more than 50 years.”
Some readers of Tuesday’s article challenged the statement that the anti-Māori comments left online were racist, arguing that those people were sharing their views, not expressing racism.
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But Waitoki disagreed.
“That assumption that racism is this very visible, violent act where you quite visibly abuse or denigrate or call somebody a racist name. That's just visible in-your-face racism.
“They’re coming from a place of not being able to understand how racism works and how colonisation works and how privilege works.”
Danny Osborne, an associate professor at Auckland University's school of psychology, says Miraka Kirīmi is a symbol of a deeper societal issue.
“The lay perception of racism is that kind of … ‘Klan hood-type’ version of what racism is. The majority of racism is casual racism that often goes undetected.
“This highlights that there are issues with racism in the country, the fact that people are responding so aggressively in some sense shows that New Zealand might not be as equal as we might think.”
Osborne said people can be quick to call out and judge others for behaviour they view as racist or prejudiced, but it is difficult for people to check in with the source of their own views.
“Most people don't consider themselves racist and don't want to be labelled as racist. They're not comfortable with being labelled as racist, they see it as something negative.
“It’s difficult for people to recognise where their motivations are coming from, and sometimes they do come from quite dark places.
“But if we start incorporating these symbols and this language into our everyday habits it sends a signal to society what the norms of New Zealand are and hopefully it creates a more inclusive nation.”
Professor Paul Spoonley, who has researched white supremacy in Aotearoa, said the fragility of some who reject reo Māori has been noticed for some time, but was particularly obvious as the use of Aotearoa in place of New Zealand grows.
“It does suggest something more substantial is in play.
“It is not just an unease with diversity in general. It is an unease with the growing presence of te reo Māori by those who do want to accord things Māori any space.
“What intrigues me is that while many of us see this language and cultural diversity, especially in relation to Māori, as part of our maturity as a nation, others want to define it as ‘losing something’. But what is being lost?”