2021: Marae Pedestrian Warning Sign
November 23, 2024
By AHNZ
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) (est.2008) changed its name to Waka Kotahi in August 2019. This was in keeping with the era of ‘Aotearoa New Zealand Culture’ that is only now coming to its historical end point.
In keeping with this, a brand new road sign was created in 2021 to advertise the presense of Maori Maraes. It’s an unmistakable replica of the iconic picture of Whina Cooper and her grandaughter setting out on the 1975 Land March.
“Every generation of Māori had their own fight. For our old people, it was keeping embers of our reo alive while schools and society more broadly sought to rob them of it. The next generation sought to see it revived, have it acknowledged as an official language of Aotearoa and have it taught in the same schools that would once beat kids for speaking it. Our generation’s challenge is to normalise the reo, to ensure everyone with an honest desire to learn it has the opportunity to do so and to plaster our language on every shop and street corner from Otou to Waikawa.” – Five reasons every marae should have these traffic signs, Airana Ngarewa, The Spinoff
According to The Spinoff these signs are, quite literally a colonising tool. During the same era ‘School’ has been replaced by ‘Kura’.
Ngarewa wrote a full 5 reasons why this traffic sign (left) should be put at every Maori meeting house and they were all political rather than having anything to do with road safety. This, of course, is hardly a surprise given the obvious homage to the great Maori Land March of 1975.
“Symbol depicting a kuia (elderly lady) holding the hand of a tamaiti (child)…Signed at Wellington this 28th day of April 2021. HAYLEY EVANS, Senior Manager Systems Integrity, Waka Kotahi.” – New Zealand Gazette (2021)
“Aotearoa’s new official marae traffic signs are an important addition to our roadsides, writes Airana Ngarewa..1. They represent us…2. They cement our place as mana whenua…3. They keep our [ed ie Maori race] kids and our old people safe…4. They are not one size, one design fits all..Every marae will have their own version…5. It is an act of kindness to our manuhiri…” – Five reasons every marae should have these traffic signs, Airana Ngarewa, The Spinoff (2022)
“Today vehicle drivers in the Bay of Plenty between Te Teko and Awakeri witnessed the first use of ‘Taihoa’ (Wait) and ‘Haere’ (Go) signs used by traffic managers…Although not yet authorised by The New Zealand Transport Agency Taui took a stand for the Māori language and opened a “30-minute window to try the panels out”. “We have had the police stop at our rakau and we have got no opposition. Nobody has turned up today and told us we cannot use these. We have a legal traffic management plan in place to be at this site on State Highway 30 Awakeri right here, right today,” the passionate Taui said. This is not the first time English language on signage has been challenged, with the late Hawea Vercoe from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Rotoiti determined to have ‘Kura’ on his buses in 2006 rather than ‘School’. He eventually won support from the then government.” – First road traffic signs in Te Reo Māori, Te Ao Maori News (2021)
As an Anarchist I accept that every culture and subculture is trying to survive and reproduce itself. That’s healthy and normal and leads to competition and improvement; Hybrid vigor. The trouble is when the levers of The State are in play so that one group can change the environment to be therapeutic to itself and toxic to its “enemies.” That’s why we can’t have a state.
As we see here, a Māori (aka Macron Maoris) subculture has instituted official government signage to further its own ambitions. They even have another sign to go with the above as a subtitle to it that reads ‘Marae’ because otherwise nobody would know what it meant. A road sign to explain a road sign! This particular cause has co-opted the taxpayer to fund them.
Weirder still, Airana Ngaewa’s hegemonic gloating about the signs was itself paid for by the Public Interest Journalism Fund via New Zealand On Air. So not only is the taxpayer’s apparatus being seized to produce and distribute these Maori political signs disguised as road safety but also to propagandise about them too. (Note, the Public Interest Journalism Fund was itself justified as a temporary cash injection by Labour 6.0 during their COVID Panic. As usual, the money spent under the cover of Crisis had little to do with COVID-19. Ref. 2022: Whiria te Tangata, AHNZ)
Also in 2021, in October, emboldened Maoris also switched out STOP and GO traffic signs for “Taihoa” and “Haere.” It seems that Waka Kotahi went along with this as the trend at the time was for government departments to believe they had obligations to the Maori language due to the Treaty of Wantangi. Even Pharmac, the government drug-buying quango, was making decisions along these lines until instructed not to by the National 6.0 coalition.
It remains to be seen how this Aotearoa New Zealand Culture era will come to an end. Many statues, books, ideas, people, institutions, names etc. have been cancelled. A new era in the 2020s will put a stop to that but it probably will not, or cannot, go back and resurrect some of the New Zealand culture that has been purged. Younger people have been raised on it now and to them the temporary storm is normal.
For example, Rotorua Boys High rejected its old patrons (Ralegh, Nelson, Frobisher, Drake) for Maori house names. It’s unlikely they’ll be restored once this Aotearoa stuff blows over. Ref. 2021: Rotorua Boys High Goes Woke, AHNZ
Another example, when the craze of defacing and cancelling Captain James Cook came around the town of Marton simply put their statue of the Captain in a box until the fashion blew over! Then, took him out again safely preserved. Ref. 1869: Marton, AHNZ
Only parts of New Zealand culture with very strong roots can withstand the Woke Wind. Those institutions and precious things that are not backed by deep convictions get swept away. That is as it should be and part of the machinery of humanity. It is perverted though because various factions get to promote or destroy using the gunpoint of government power. Some things that should not have been forgotten are lost, some things that should have lived are killed, some things that should never have been born are bankrolled with stolen loot.
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Image ref. RTL
Image ref. Josephine ‘Whini’ Cooper and grandaughter Irene Cooper. NZ Herald (1975)
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