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Ngā Kōrero o Ōtaki
ŌTAKI TODAY • ĀPERIRA APRIL 2021
otakitoday.com
Rangatahi shocked at ‘racist’ comments By Ian Carson
Comments allegedly describing te reo Māori in racist terms such as “monkey language” shocked the Ōtaki kura students who attended a council meeting in late February. The comments were revealed after a teacher at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Rito made a complaint to Mayor K Gurunathan. A group of six year 12 students from the kura in Te Rauparaha Street were invited to a meeting of Kāpiti Coast District Council on February 25 where councillors were hearing submissions on the proposed Kāpiti Gateway Centre in Paraparaumu. The mainly 16-year-old students were there to support regional iwi, who were gifting a Māori name – Te Uruhi – for the centre. It was also a learning opportunity for the rangatahi; seeing how council meetings operated, and hearing about the historical and cultural significance of Te Uruhi from iwi representatives. After KCDC iwi liaison manager Kahu Ropata spoke, the rangatahi sang a mōteatea, traditionally presented after a speech. The mōteatea took the speaking time over the allotted three minutes, angering some other members of the public gallery who had opposed the gateway project. A haka then ensued. Te Rito teacher Ariana Reweti, who accompanied the students, said in her letter of complaint that someone told the students to “sit down”, a woman asked why they were speaking Māori: “I should speak Chinese”, and someone asked “Why do we need to listen to this monkey language?” Te Rito tumuaki (principal) Janey Wilson told Ōtaki Today the comments shocked the students. “They had been told they were going to a meeting where some people would be opposed to the project, and that’s OK, but what they heard shocked them,” she says. continues page 5
HANDOVER: The new owner of Riverbank Engineering, Dean Roberts, left, with retiring owner Nigel Pritchard. Dean says it’s “business as usual” at Riverbank. Photo Ian Carson
End of an era as Riverbank changes hands Riverbank Engineering, established in 1977 by Nigel and Justine Pritchard, has been sold. The couple bought the business after Nigel had completed an engineering apprenticeship at Southgates, and after they had returned from two years travelling overseas. Already past “gold card” age, Nigel says the time was right to pass the business on to Riverbank’s operations manager, Dean Roberts. “After 43 working at the same place, I felt it was time to take a break,” Nigel says. “Justine and I want to do more of the things we’ve never been able to do before. It’s simple things, like catching a train down to Wellington for a coffee and a day out, or taking the campervan away a lot more often.” He says he’s seen many changes in the engineering business, many of them reflecting the changes in Ōtaki. In the late 1970s, there were still hundreds of farms and small market
gardens in the area, all who needed engineering work to build or fix machinery. Then came the horticulture industry, driven by the tax breaks offered to white collar farmers, and more recently the building of the Kāpiti expressway. “That was a godsend,” Nigel says. “We didn’t benefit directly, but rather through the work we did for the concrete companies, mainly building and assembling molds.” Having at its peak employed more than 20 people, and having trained several apprentices, Riverbank has been a significant contributor to the local economy, as well as a big supporter of local community events and organisations. Dean Roberts inherits 11 employees and one of the longestrunning businesses in Ōtaki. He says there won’t be much changing at the company: “It’s business as usual.”
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