Lady slams te reo limitation by restaurant manager Havelock North

An ex-Ngāti Whātua politician who was asked to stop using ‘kia ora’ in the 80s says she is ‘disgusted’ that a McDonald’s supervisor is asking a member of staff to do the same .

Lady Rangimarie Naida Glavish,
a Maori community leader and former politician, refused to stop greeting callers with “kia ora” while working as a telephone operator in the 1980s.

She said the story that made national headlines earlier this week about a 15-year-old staff member who was told to use less te reo when greeting customers at Havelock North McDonald’s had saddened her.

“It’s a greeting unique to this country. It’s the only country in the world that has the right to use it openly, without fear.”

She said it was even more disappointing to learn it was a Maori woman who had warned the staff member against using the greeting.

“The country deserves to know why it would say that and why it would do that.

“I would tell them that they have to adopt an attitude of being happy to be in their own skin.”

The manager had since apologized to the teenager.

A McDonald’s spokesperson said that since the story broke earlier this week, staff at the Havelock North restaurant had been subjected to abuse and aggressive behavior from customers.

He declined to comment further, but said earlier that McDonald’s national position was to support the use of New Zealand’s three official languages ​​and that they supported the use of te reo Māori by staff and patrons. clients.

The young employee’s father, Renata Nepe, said his son Tākena told him the supervisor’s reasoning was that “some people might not like it”.

Nepe said earlier that the manager’s comment was most likely innocent, as she herself is Maori.

He said earlier that his social media post after the incident was not intended to incite hatred towards Havelock McDonald’s.

“I just want everyone to be treated with love, respect and consideration. The intent of this post was not to have everyone protest outside Havelock North McDonald’s, it’s about raising awareness. The safety of everyone who works there and the manager is paramount.”

Nepe said that at this point Havelock North McDonald’s management had offered to speak with Tākena, but there had been no further contact with the whānau of McDonald’s or the Havelock North franchise.

Bayden Barber, chairman of Ngāti Kahungunu and board member of the Maori Language Commission, said te reo Māori should be heard from afar.

“It’s our mother tongue here in New Zealand, it’s an official language of Aotearoa.

“Kia ora is our greeting. There is a lot of mana in the phrase kia ora is ‘to be well’.”

He said the manager asking the staff member to refrain from using the kia ora sent the wrong message.

“We can break down those barriers and we have over the years, but obviously there’s still work to be done. So let’s stick with it and do that work.”