Ōmokoroa needs a macron

On behalf of Room 10 at Ōmokoroa Point School, I would like to raise an issue our class has discovered. The spelling of the place we live in has been misspelt on most of the road signs and the shops and business signs. Ōmokoroa needs a macron. Most of the places we have looked at do not have the macron.

The macron changes the meaning of the word whether we like it or not. For example, keke means cake, but if you add a macron on the last e, like this: kekē, it would mean armpit.

And if you spell wētā without the macrons, it would mean poop!

Another example is mata, meaning a song or incantation, while matā with the macron means quartz or obsidian.

If we don’t put the macron on Ōmokoroa it could change the entire meaning of the place and it could be offensive. If this issue remains unchecked for too long future generations could forget the macron and the entire meaning of Ōmokoroa would have changed forever.

Room 10 is trying to get the community behind us and make this right. We have created a voting form that people can add their names to, we are also writing letters to our Western Bay Council and the Community FaceBook page. Some of the class have written a Macron Rap that goes along with a video showing how adding a macron makes a difference. There are posters being made to put out around the community making people aware of what we want to do.

If you want to support us to achieve our goal, please email our teacher at dduggan@omokoroapoint.school.nz. Kind regards,

George Palade, Room 10.