All racists welcome: rubbish bin removed over te reo stickers

Wednesday, 16 June 2021

Supreme Court Justice Joe Williams speaks about the importance of te reo Māori - using the language itself.

First someone took the rubbish bin stickers, then the council took the rubbish bin.

Hohepa Thompson says he has been replacing the stickers he put on the council bin outside his gallery for weeks, only to have them removed every time by a member of the public.

Now the entire bin has been taken by the Kāpiti Coast District Council following a complaint. The council says the objection was about “graffiti”; Thompson says the real issue is racism.

The stickers say ‘'rāpihi'’ – the reo word for rubbish.

Hohepa Thompson says the removal of reo stickers smacks of racism.

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Kāpiti Coast District Council removed one of its rubbish bins after a complaint.

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Thompson’s gallery, Hori, is in Ōtaki: long tipped to become New Zealand’s first official bilingual town and home to a high percentage of te reo Māori speakers, Te Wānanga o Raukawa, and two Māori immersion schools.

Thompson says his stickers are part of a community initiative to encourage the use of te reo and he is fed up with people offended by that, even if they are in the minority.

“We are translating a whole scoreboard for a rugby team; 60 to 70 businesses are keen to do it – even tradies’ cars and shops around the entire town.”

The stickers have been ripped off on three or four different occasions and Thompson says he has confronted the person he believes did it. The issue prompted him to launch a new exhibition for next month to prompt korero about racism/kaikiritanga. It is called Rāpihi and “all racists are welcome”.

Council spokesman and group manager for infrastructure services Sean Mallon said the bin was removed “following a complaint regarding graffiti”.

“We have since investigated the matter and accept the sticker was trying to further promote Ōtaki as a bilingual town … As a council we fully support the use of te reo Māori in our work, and we are open to exploring opportunities to collaborate with the creative sector to come up with a more fitting visual design for our council rubbish bins that promotes the use of te reo Māori and adds to the vibrancy of our district.”

Kāpiti mayor K Gurunathan said he absolutely supported the use and promotion of reo but there were processes to follow before anyone could add to or change signs on council property.

Thompson is no stranger when it comes to altering or adding to signs for a good cause. In 2017, he taped over the letter P on dozens of council road signs to highlight the problem of methamphetamine and encouraged people in other communities to do the same. Crossed-out Ps were spotted in Porirua City and Taranaki.

That same year, he changed the billboard atop his gallery to read ‘’Brotaki’’ – a reference to the town’s Māori population – but after community complaints later amended it to read “Bro, it’s not Brotaki, it’s Ōtaki.”