“Who decided te reo comes first?”
That’s how councillor Tony Todd opened discussion around the Ashburton District Council’s submission on bilingual signs this week.
“It’s a question I get asked quite a lot is with this signage, why is Māori first and English underneath and not the other way around,” Todd said.
“I wonder, the reason why the wording is the way it is and who made that decision.”
The council ultimately agreed to a submission in support of proposals in the He Tohu Huarahi Māori Bilingual Traffic Signs Programme, but had questions about safety considerations in the ordering of languages, and if there could be consistency in distinguishing between English and te reo.
The council was presented with the consultation document for Waka Kotahi, depicting the proposed new sign options.
Councillor Phill Hooper said he had received public feedback around safety, and he wanted to ask Waka Kotahi what research had been undertaken that proved putting te reo first would not compromise safety.
Hooper’s suggestion had support.
“These signs are getting very wordy and confusing,” Councillor Lynette Lovett said.
“We are taught to read from the top down and I think English has to be at the top.”
Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency and Te Mātāwai developed the signs for consultation, democracy and engagement group manager Toni Durham said.
Internationally there are many countries with bilingual signage, Durham said, and research indicated “your eye is drawn to what you understand, and so if you can’t understand the Māori, automatically your eye will drop down to the English”.
“From a research perspective, bilingual signage does not result in more crashes,” she said.
Councillors still wanted to include the question around safety considerations of te reo being on top of English.
The council is also asking for consistency, with councillor Carolyn Cameron suggesting that the English and te reo on all signs be in different colours or different fonts to help avoid confusion.
In supporting the council submission, deputy mayor Liz McMillan said it will normalise the use of te reo and “people’s eyes will go to the words that they know and then they will start learning some new words”.
The only councillor to oppose the submission was councillor Richard Wilson.
He felt it was a divisive topic that was “being force-fed” on the public rather than a natural progression of change.
Submissions closed on Friday.
The consultation on 94 signs follows the successful rule change last year to enable bilingual kura/school traffic signs which are already in place in the district.
Once the bilingual signs are finalised, they will be introduced as existing signs are replaced or new signs are needed on the network.

• By Jonathan Leask