21/3/2019 0 Comments Are languages part of the brand?A story circulated Facebook this morning about a man, Sydney Heremaia, being made to feel 's... for being Māori', because he was turned down by Air New Zealand recruitment for having a tā moko. This is the kind of story that surprises me (it seems way too blatant a tale of employment discrimination on cultural grounds - although it turns out it’s not the first time the airline have rejected applicants with “visible tattoos”, whether tā moko or … um … Tinkerbell) but also the kind of story I’m not going to comment on too much. I’m not part of the culture, and I don’t have much of a reference point about the true significance of tā moko. I understand Heremaia’s disgust at the use of the term “body art”, dismissing the tā moko as an “accessory”, but I am well aware that I don’t truly understand.
But it made me think back to a story about another airline from the region last month, when it was announced that Hawaiian Airlines had launched a program to increase use of Hawaiian language, providing certification for employees in Hawaiian (following an oral exam and reading test) along the same lines as their certification in languages such as Japanese, Korean and French. This followed their announcement in April last year of their first Hawaiian language flight to Mainland, with eight flight attendants onboard who were fluent in the language. I had posted both stories to our Language Matters in the Pacific Facebook group, commenting that the certification scheme could be a good model for other airlines that serve the region, as well as other public services. I was thinking particularly of Air New Zealand, as this seemed to fit in with what I’ve always seen as relatively visible attempts to portray New Zealand as being open and inclusive, including the ‘Representing New Zealand’ brand of Auckland Airport’s facelift. It wouldn’t have surprised me at all to hear Air New Zealand embracing the value of te reo Māori and other Pacific languages in similar ways. Looking back at the press releases today, I see that the Hawaiian Airlines flight was advertised as “an extension of our airline’s commitment to honor, celebrate and perpetuate Hawaii’s rich culture” according to Debbie Nakanelua-Richards, the airline’s director of community relations: “Over the years, we have mindfully weaved in Hawaiian concepts, language and traditions into our business to create educational, immersive experiences for our guests.” Meanwhile, the certification initiative launched last month was said to be “aligned with the company’s mission and brand. Hawaiian Airlines is known for its efforts to perpetuate Hawaiian culture, both among its staff and to its customers”. Given today’s story, I read these PR comments in a slightly different light. Sydney Heremaia considers Air New Zealand “hypocritical” to reject him for his tā moko “while covering their uniforms and planes with koru designs”. “If they can put it on those things why can't we have it on our skin? It is almost like they are saying we embrace and celebrate te ao Māori, but only when it suits us.” And, of course, Fiji Airways caused huge cultural appropriation controversy when it rebranded itself in 2012 with the help of masi designs, commissioned by a local artist but then trademarked by the airline, despite already being considered a significant part of the iTaukei cultural heritage. So I was curious to see what Air New Zealand had to say about language issues. Are languages such as te reo Māori part of their brand? The first article returned by a search was a press release from 2017 stating that the airline is turning to technology to tackle the language barriers that often arise during travel, noting that multilingual staff can’t possibly be employed to handle all the possible languages of their customers. However, the Air New Zealanders section of their website includes a video about the Waha Tohu pin used to identify its staff members who are fluent in te reo Māori (although unfortunately with subtitles provided by an unsupervised robot that has managed to turn ‘the waha comes from’ into ‘y-chromosome’, amongst other howlers). The website states: “We recognise that Māori culture is an especially important part of New Zealand's identity. We are committed to further weaving Māori culture and language into the fabric of our business, and have collaborated with the Māori Language Commission to develop the "Waha Tohu" pin, a Māori language identifier pin that can be worn by fluent te reo speaking New Zealanders.” I have no idea when this section of the website was updated, but it’s curious that the New Zealand Māori Arts & Crafts Institute has mysteriously chosen today - the same day that the news broke of Sydney Heremaia being denied a job on account of his tā moko - to announce this initiative: Air New Zealand tohu recognises fluency in te reo Māori. I’m clearly not the only one who read Heremaia’s story today and wondered whether the airline considers languages part of their brand.
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March 2019
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