Signposts - a blog about Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Children learning Māori - the second-most-spoken language in New Zealand (click for image credit)

It’s census time again, and this time the census can’t come too soon – it was originally scheduled for March 2011 but was postponed due to the Christchurch earthquake. We blogged about this at the time. At Te Ara we use census data all the time, so we are geekily looking forward to the release of the 2013 data in due course. The last census was in 2006.

The census gathers data on a wide range of subjects, one of which is languages spoken in New Zealand. A few weeks ago a group of us were discussing names for entries on New Zealand words and phrases, and Kiwi speech patterns, and we realised that we don’t have an entry on language diversity in New Zealand. This is something that will hopefully be remedied in the future. For now, here’s a quick look at what recent censuses tell us about this subject.

The census measures the languages that people resident in New Zealand on census night can speak up to a level where they can have a conversation about everyday things in it. Unsurprisingly, in 2006 the most common language was English (95.9% of people). It’s interesting to think about that small group of people who can’t have a conversation in English. It’s hard visiting a country whose language you can’t speak, so I wonder what life is like for non-English speakers in New Zealand. Another fascinating fact is that 20% of people who can’t speak English were born in New Zealand.

The next most common language spoken in New Zealand in 2006 was Māori - 4% of people could have an everyday conversation in Māori. More people spoke Māori in 2001, but fewer in 1996, so it will be interesting to see how this has changed by 2013.

Multilingualism is on the increase as New Zealand becomes more ethnically diverse. In 2006, 43% more people could speak two or more languages than in 1996. The Auckland region had the highest proportion of multilingual people in 2006 because it had the most ethnically diverse population.

If you want to learn more about language diversity in New Zealand, go to ‘QuickStats about culture and identity’ on the Statistics New Zealand website and download the tables. You’ll find, for example, that 4,305 people spoke Persian in 2006, compared to 1,584 in 1996, and that the number of Tamil speakers grew 138% in that 10-year period. In 2006, 2% of New Zealanders couldn’t speak any language, most likely because they were too young to talk. In tonight’s census their voices, or at least their spoken languages, will be recorded.

Poster for a French cultural festival (click for image credit)

Over the weekend we hosted a couple of French couchsurfers who were in town to experience the Wellington round of the rugby Sevens tournament and anything else that came their way. In case you don’t know, couchsurfing is when you stay with a private home for free while visiting a new place. We hooked up with Jules and Patrice through the Couchsurfing website – we are listed on there as a place to stay in Wellington.

This was our first couchsurfing hosting experience. My partner Alexander joined the website while travelling in the UK and Europe last year, and though he didn’t end up staying with anyone, he did meet up socially with fellow travellers through the website. Once home, Alexander was keen to host some travellers, but I wasn’t so sure – I value my private space and am known to be a social curmudgeon at times, but I decided to be brave and give it a go.

We looked at the requests for accommodation we’d received and liked the sound of Jules, a young guy in his early 20s from Grasse in the south-east of France. He’d been in New Zealand since early December last year and his father Patrice was going to join him for a week. Jules said he didn’t want his father to sleep in the car as he’d been doing while travelling around – I liked the sound of a solicitous son!

Alexander met Jules and Patrice outside Te Papa, which was their first stop in Wellington, on Friday evening and brought them home. I was immediately struck by their warmth and enthusiasm for New Zealand and the experiences they’d had driving down the North Island over the past couple of days. They both thought they were in paradise and Patrice kept exclaiming in wonder, both in French and gorgeously accented English, which both of them spoke very well. They found the idiosyncrasies of New Zealand speech and language amusing – their favourite New Zealand expression was ‘Sweet as bro,’ which they kept repeating and laughing over, and they found our pronunciation of ‘left’ hilarious.

They had a great time watching all the costumed Sevens fans – something they said you’d never see in France – and watching the games on a screen in town. We invited some friends round for a potluck dinner on Saturday night and it ended up being quite international – as well as our French guests, we had an American immigrant and an Italian traveller. The night ended with Alexander and his mate Joe taking Jules and Patrice to a gig at a warehouse in Miramar. They were gobsmacked when one musician smashed his guitar – this was something new to them.

Hosting Jules and Patrice was a great experience. I loved their positivity and enjoyment of New Zealand. They’d been told New Zealand was a quiet, slow place but they soon learned their source was misinformed. We farewelled them on Sunday, wishing them well for their journey back to Auckland via Taranaki and the King Country. Sweet as bros and au revoir.

Union Jack and colonial flags postcard from around the start of the 20th century (click for image credit)

Royal visits to New Zealand are traditionally a flag-waving affair, and royalty fans will have an opportunity to dust off their flags when Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, tour Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and the Manawatū region in November. Ever helpful in matters of protocol, cultural processes and historical precedents, Te Ara, NZHistory and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage provide prospective flag-bearers with information on flags and flag protocol. You’ve really got no excuse if you make any flag blunders.

According to the Stuff news website, the people of Manawatū were under the impression that the Union Jack (the British flag) and related bunting were banned during the royal visit because organisers wanted to promote New Zealand. Stuff’s headline, ‘Union Jack banned for royal visit’, is not actually borne out by the contents of the article, which makes it clear that the ‘ban’ is rather a suggestion that the New Zealand flag would be the appropriate flag to fly.

If the Queen was visiting, then the flag situation would be clear – her personal flag for New Zealand would be flown. Not many people are likely to have this flag though.
There is historical precedent for the use of the Union Jack while royalty is in New Zealand. During past royal tours in more enthusiastic times, New Zealand was carpeted with Union Jacks. In fact, the Union Jack was regularly flown in New Zealand in ordinary circumstances until the 1950s, even though we’d had our own flag since 1902.

For those who are interested in such matters, it is appropriate to fly the Union Jack, based on precedent. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage advises that it is appropriate to fly the Union Jack in recognition of a distinguished British visitor. And of course, New Zealand’s flag contains a Union Jack in the upper left quarter, so you can cover both bases if you fly this one.

(Another) Matakana wedding

I recently attended a family wedding at Matakana, a wine-growing and farming settlement 70-odd kilometres north of Auckland. I travelled up from Wellington via Whanganui and the King Country, and my visit caused me to reflect on the way some rural townships have carved out new identities and thrived, while others have not, and have diminished accordingly.

In the early 1990s local developer Richard Didsbury bought Matakana’s old sawmill site with the view to creating a boutique village and farmers’ market, and this is exactly what happened. Matakana was not completely reinvented – its history as a farming and fruit-growing district is clearly relevant to its present identity as a food and wine destination – but the chichi village I visited, packed with people on a Saturday morning, is surely a far cry from the Matakana of old.

I was intrigued to see that the old dairy factory now houses a design store that would be at home in any of New Zealand’s bigger cities. Having seen many dilapidated, disused dairy factories on my travels around the country, this seemed to me, if I needed more evidence, that Matakana had successfully cemented its status as a thriving small township – or ‘village’, as it is now branded.

So, what factors contributed to Matakana’s success? I can think of a few things right away. Its proximity to Auckland is key – Aucklanders can boot it up State Highway 1 via the new toll road in just over an hour, which probably isn’t very long to all to those accustomed to slow traffic. Matakana is a wine-growing area replete with vineyards and fancy wineries and, like other such spots in New Zealand – Hawke’s Bay for instance – related food, retail and tourism businesses have been established in the wake of the vines. Individuals such as Richard Disbury have also clearly played their part.

I couldn’t help but contrast Matakana with some of the places in the King Country I know are struggling, such as Ōhura and Benneydale. These places are too far away from major population centres, are not on main transport routes and their economies have not been propped up by new industries to replace the old, as has happened in revitalized country towns.

Do you know of any towns off the beaten track which have overcome the tyranny of distance to thrive in the 2000s? What is the key to their success?

And for more on Matakana, check out our latest Roadside Story audio guide.

Ben Hana/Blanket Man

All cities (and some towns) have their share of people who live their lives, day and night, out on the streets, whether by circumstance or choice. Most remain nameless to those who pass them by, but some become well known enough to gain unofficial names, often based on their appearance. One of those people was Wellington’s Ben Hana – aka Blanket Man – who passed away on Sunday.

It’s probably fair to say that Hana surpassed the fame of those who came before him, such as Robert Jones (Bucket Man) who traversed the streets of Wellington with a bucket in hand for 20 years and was the inspiration for a character in Maurice Gee’s novel Blindsight. Hana is the subject of a Wikipedia entry, a Facebook page, a documentary (which can be viewed online) and an academic conference paper. He featured in Pip Desmond’s 2009 book Trust: a true story of women & gangs. One year a group of people dressed as Blanket Man for the Sevens rugby tournament in Wellington. There will be many more lesser-known instances of Hana’s cultural influence.

While not all supported Hana’s lifestyle, street presence and behaviour, there is little doubt that he was a true and striking character, recognised and known throughout Wellington and beyond. Aside from the periods in which he was carted off to prison or hospital, he was a fixture on the streets – someone we expected to see, either huddled in his blanket or sunbathing on top of it, sometimes abusive but usually smiling and swaying to music. He literally left his mark on the places he inhabited – his dreadlocks left a black smudge on the wall of the Courtenay Place building he sat in front of most recently. A shrine has been erected at this spot.

I didn’t ever really know Hana, but I did come to understand that there was more to him than a printed blanket and a loin cloth when he turned up to a community garden working bee in Te Aro in 2001. The ground was stony and difficult to work, but he wielded his pick-axe with strength and dexterity, blanket flying, throughout the day. The garden was an act of protest against the inner-city bypass road, and Hana also attended marches and meetings about this – I remember seeing a large blanket hanging off the gallery at the town hall during one such meeting, which signalled that he and his comrades were in attendance. You can learn more about his political beliefs and ideas by checking out that documentary mentioned above.

In those days I used to wear a red coat and he always called me Red Riding Hood. Over time the red coat went by the wayside, but we continued to exchange nods. I passed the legend of Blanket Man down to my son, who dressed up as him one day without prompting.

Amos as Blanket Man

Farewell Ben Hana/Blanket Man. You earned your place as a true man of the streets and a Wellington icon. I wonder how the city will recognise your life and contribution to its street culture?