From tomorrow, thousands of Aucklanders who use the city's train services will now be able to hear te reo Māori on their journeys.
Photo: RNZ / John Boynton
Auckland Transport launched its te reo Māori announcement service today at Britomart Station.
Māori actor Miriama Smith was chosen to voice the new te reo announcements to will be heard on Auckland's train system.
Te reo Māori will be featured in the main safety announcements of train services, the beginning, mid point and end of train journeys.
For Glenn Wilcox, the fight to hear te reo Māori on public transport has been one he has been fronting since the Auckland Council amalgamated in 2010.
"It has been a long journey with AT and naively I thought all they had to do was push a button," Mr Wilcox said. "I even offered to do it myself."
"Thankfully they found someone better, but the really kaupapa was making that synchronised with the rest of the train stations."
Mr Wilcox said he had seen and heard how wonderful it was to have bilingual announcements on public transport overseas.
It was important that New Zealand followed suit with te reo Māori.
"It's what makes New Zealand unique you won't hear Māori on any other train in the world but you will hear it in New Zealand and you will hear it in Auckland."
Photo: RNZ / John Boynton
Auckland Transport chief executive Shane Ellison said it was special to be able to hear the announcement for the first time.
"To get to today is a great first step and it normalises using te reo on trains and it normalises people hearing te reo on trains."
He said he felt AT was on the right track with promoting bilingualism in the city.
"From my perspective it was more a question of why not? How can we facilitate meeting the obligations we have under the Treaty of Waitangi and celebrate a unique aspect of New Zealand."
AT Māori relationship and policy manager Tipa Compain said he was excited about the next steps AT was taking to make te reo Māori more visible around the city.
"Stage 2 [and] stage 3 of our action plan on the public transport network for Auckland is about finding the right names, Māori names, for the English stations and that'll be a conversation with mana whenua."
The next stage of the announcements will be to include an enhancement of the current messages in te reo throughout the whole train journey.