Anyone with an unusual ethnic sounding name will know what a chore it is to ring up a taxi, book a hotel room, leave a message, apply for a job, deal with a government agency, join the gym, register with an organisation…in fact a myriad of day to day tasks that require you to identify yourself. The reason being is that you almost always have to spell your name carefully, pronounce it, possibly explain where it came from and what it means if they’re curious enough to ask, then double check their spelling before completing your task.
I have many cousins and acquaintances who have two names, one for the family and the other for Palagi/Pakeha people. My cousin Mulu also goes by the name ‘Kevin’, my cousin Sanouefa goes by the name ‘Eileen’, my Chinese real estate agent Zhiang uses the name ‘Peter’ on his advertising.
One of the few places you wouldn’t have to explain your name is when you set up a profile online for a social networking site right? Wrong.
A young Lakota woman by the name of Robin Kills The Enemy reportedly had her Facebook account shut down after one of Facebook’s operations analysts deemed her profile name a violation of their Terms of Use.
Kills The Enemy’s account has since been reinstated, but not without causing indignation and outrage to her, her family and friends, and many other native and indigenous people who experience marginalisation simply by saying their name.
Two years ago when I interviewed Radio Waatea announcer, Kingi Taurua about his childhood, he recalled how he had to change his name at the Native School he attended up north at Oromahoe because the teacher couldn’t pronounce his name – Kingi Eruera. In the end his father made him take the name ‘Albert’ after their rooster because they were both cheeky. While there was a funny element to the story, you could still sense the hurt that someone could make a child feel small and unworthy because their name was ‘alien’.
I know there are thousands of stories like this, but in this day and age when technology is supposed to enlighten us, indigenous people are still having to prove and justify their existence at such a basic level.
What can we do about this? Two things.
I suggest we set up our own indigenous social networking site. Look at the success of Black Planet. 16 million users and a successful meeting place for black American people. There are 370 million indigenous people worldwide according to the United Nations (Facebook has about 110 million users). I’m not sure how many have access to a computer, but what a great opportunity that represents for indigenous people. I’m sure this isn’t a new idea but it’s one that hasn’t been done successfully yet.
The second and most important thing is we must continue to bear our names with pride, and if we have to, keep educating people about who we are. It’s a tedious and sometime frustrating process, but every time I do, one more person becomes acquainted with my tupuna (ancestors). Even if that person doesn’t care about my tupuna, the words have been spoken and put out into the atmosphere and into their consciousness.
The full story of Robin Kills The Enemy can be seen on the Rez Net website at this link http://www.reznetnews.org/article/facebook-not-friendly-natives-29240.
Kaiwhiriwhiri (Judges) presiding at Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival 2009 will combine their specialist expertise in the Māori performing arts with the latest computer technology – to decide the country’s top kapa haka groups.
Anything that promotes the Maori language, even a small phrase like “Kia Ora”, has to be good I thought. But after checking out the site http://kiora.com, the site looks more like a sleazy dating/pickup site and bears no relation whatsoever to Maori culture. I’m offended by the site even more so, because the founder refers to Maori in the first sentence of his press release.
