Ōmokoroa finally gets a macron after school kids campaign

Thursday, 22 September 2022

Room 10 at Ōmokoroa Point School have convinced council to update its signage.

A class of Ōmokoroa school children have triumphed in their mahi to recognise the mana of a macron.

Room 10 at Ōmokoroa Point School presented to Western Bay of Plenty District Council last month asking for council signage to be updated to include the macron above the first O in Ōmokoroa because it is the correct spelling.

The class project, titled ‘Operation Tohutō (macron)’, started in term two when the class were writing thank you letters and realised they had been spelling Ōmokoroa incorrectly.

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When presenting their case to council the students stressed the importance of the macron by explaining words can mean different things without one, and that a macron tells people how to pronounce words correctly.

At a meeting last week, councillors voted unanimously to add the macron to all of the town’s signage. Local Democracy Reporting visited the class after the meeting, which they watched live via the council’s YouTube channel.

Vivienne Apanui, 10, and Johan Heyns, 11, said it's weird to see Ōmokoroa spelt incorrectly without its macron.

Room 10 teacher Deirdre Duggan said cheers of “Yay!” rung out across the class once they realised the councillors had approved their request. Student Johan Heyns, 11, added they were all excited and some of the boys started chanting: “Macron, macron, macron.”

He said it feels “pretty good” that Operation Tohutō had been successful.

“Now people can spell it [Ōmokoroa] right and they can learn from their mistakes.”

Johan knows first-hand how important it is to spell and pronounce names correctly, as his was often mispronounced as Johan with a J rather than a Y sound.

“People might take offence to it, if you spell their name wrong,” he said.

Fellow classmate Vivienne Apanui, 10, said the decision was “quite astonishing” because she was expecting the council to “think about it and think about it” rather than act so quickly.

Every time the two students see signs without the macron now, they think it looks “a bit weird” and want to correct it.

“It's quite annoying when people don't spell your name right – it kind of gives me OCD,” laughed Vivienne.

Duggan said she was “really impressed” with the Year 5 and 6 students’ tenacity because at first, they didn’t realise that official processes can take time.

“I’m really impressed with the fact that they've stuck it out, because it's not just us going and using a paintbrush,” she said.

“It has to be changed officially and it's part of council process.

“It's something that the kids were really quite determined and quite passionate about actually getting changed.

“We talk about kia tika – doing the right thing – and this is all part of that, because it's all about respecting peoples’ and places’ names.”

The class was supported by local Māori language specialist Terania Ormsby-Teki and Pirirakau hapū during their journey to recognise the history and cultural significance of Ōmokoroa.

As part of the project, the children have created videos about the importance of the macron and instructions on how to add it when using devices.

Duggan said they planned on sharing these resources with the rest of the school and the wider community once they were complete.

The class also wanted to get local businesses on board to change their signage to reflect the tohutō.

“Now it's been officially changed by the council, we're looking for support from the local community. So, the kids will be working on getting our message out to them.

“Now it's just spreading the word. Spreading the love, getting them [the signs] changed.”

After Room 10s visit to council, mayor Garry Webber said in a statement: “As a community we need more advocates like these rangatahi.

“They’re doing a fantastic job of showing their community how to use and respect te reo.

“We really appreciate their mahi [work] and we know they’ll be carefully correcting the spelling of Ōmokoroa wherever they see it without it’s tohutō.”

Webber plans to visit Ōmokoroa Point School next week to talk about governance and social change.

Room 10 also asked council to review its other signage around the Western Bay of Plenty and any that have a legal name with a tohutō be updated.

Their final request was for council to design a new billboard at the entrance of Ōmokoroa to include the tohutō. Councillors approved both requests in last week’s meeting, and council invited the students of Room 10 to help design the sign.

Council said it included a tohutō for all new communications that include Ōmokoroa following discussion with Pirirakāu hapū in 2020. Since then, all new signs and publications have included a tohutō on Ōmokoroa.

The 16 signs that need updating would have a macron added or be replaced with the correct spelling as “per the usual maintenance schedule”.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.