Kaka better street by design

IAIN MCGREGOR/ Waikato Times

CHANGE OF MEANING: Tokoroa resident Rameka Waenga walks past the street sign that prompted the South Waikato Council to add macrons to street signs.

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A macron in the Maori language can make all the difference - just ask the kids who go to Te Kura Kaupapa o Te Hiringa in Tokoroa.

Each day the children would walk past the Kaka Cres sign on the way to school laughing because in the Maori language Kaka, as was written on the sign until 2006, means faeces. Kaka is the native parrot.

Charlie Te Pana, who is the language specialist for the Raukawa Trust Board, said some of the children on the street had been too embarrassed to say where they lived.

So the Raukawa Trust Board decided to step in, and the Tokoroa-based group lobbied the South Waikato Council to rectify the sign. As a result a number of the town's signs were changed to carry macrons and the street that started it all is now known as Kaka Cres.

The move earned the Raukawa Trust Board the supreme accolade at the Maori Language Awards and the council won the new entrant section in 2006.

Mr Te Pana said the win helped with the impetus to grow the use of Maori language in the South Waikato region and this year was all about consolidating results achieved in past years.

In this Maori language week the trust had increased the enthusiasm behind the drive.

Mr Te Pana said the trust board had employed 10 initiatives this year including selling clothing with key Maori slogans, filming interviews with old people to keep Maori phrases unique to the South Waikato alive, and making a DVD with stories about significant landmarks in the area.

- © Fairfax NZ News