The sanitised fantasy of te reo

Glossy words, silent on the ugly truth

As the country is once again drowned in a mana wave of compulsory cultural performance for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, the 6pm news has become a relentless theatre of overused te reo catchphrases. Every anchor, reporter and weather presenter parrots the same handful of Māori words like it’s a scripted audition, and the rest of us are expected to politely ap…