People travelling on Auckland trains will hear safety announcements made in both English and te reo Māori from tomorrow, following the launch of a new public transport programme.
Auckland Transport Māori Relationships manager Tipa Compain says the programme is the agency’s contribution to making sure te reo Māori is heard and used.
“The policy of Auckland Council is that you see it, hear it, use it, learn it– and this is our contribution to that,” he told Te Kāea reporter Kawe Roes today before the programme’s official launch.
“This is phase one where the safety messages will be done in te reo and you hear te reo at the beginning of the journey, middle of the journey and end of the journey.”
After today Auckland Transport will work with mana whenua to start the next phase so that all messages on trains will be done in te reo.
Compain says debates will likely take place to decide the translation of the English place names of stations, including the Britomart Station.
In the future, Compain plans for Auckland buses and ferries to adopt the programme “so that te reo is normalised and we’ll have a lot of Aucklanders and visitors to Auckland pronouncing our place names correctly.”