Marcus Lush’s brilliant takedown of Newstalk ZB of the caller by the names of the Maori albatrosses

Newstalk ZB host Marcus Lush has once again had a colorful confrontation with a caller about Maori names, after the caller Judith raised concerns about how the royal bull / northern albatrosses are named.

At around 11:45 pm, Judith admitted that she hadn’t been listening, but wanted to raise a rather “controversial” issue.

Starting the call by saying “I probably just want to change the subject because I haven’t been listening, but I wonder who chooses the name of the albatross chicks.”

The Department of Conservation runs a contest in which people submit their work to name the last albatross chick before it leaves New Zealand and flies off to feed near South America.

The last two years the chicks have been given Maori names, and this year’s name is Atawhai, which means kindness.

But seconds later, Judith dropped the “I’m not racist at all” line, before saying “I don’t know why albatross chicks have to be called by a Maori name all the time,” and Judith suggested other names, like Reg or Jack, and his own entrance Bob.

Lush responded by saying that people submit the names they think are the best and found the evaluation criteria, which lists relevance, originality and creativity.

“Do you think Bob would fit that criteria?” Lush asked, but Judith kept pressing her point in 14 minutes round trip, much to the delight of the callers.

Judith responded, saying, “Well, not particularly, no. I wonder why it’s always a Maori name because I don’t think albatrosses are particularly related to Maori.”

Lush quickly chimed in, confirming that albatrosses aren’t people, but Judith wasn’t having a great time.

“They are not a bird that, you know, represented particularly by the Maori community, they go all over the world, are they?”

Lush responded, informing Judith that they are the only birds of their kind in the world that nest on the continent of Aotearoa, making them special to the Maori.

“So that in itself would say that, to my understanding, they have always been there.”

Judith came back with another argument: “But has that continent always been Maori or does it have to be a Maori name?”

Then ZB’s Lush chimed in, telling Judith, “I think you have a problem. I think you have a bee on your hood about this.

“They are not related to the Maori because they are a bird. They have always been there. For the Maori, albatrosses represent beauty and power … they are represented in rock drawings and gathering houses.”

Judith responded by saying that “they are also very important to ordinary New Zealanders.”

Lush asked her in more detail, but Judith said she couldn’t get the story across. Instead, she went on to say “they are a beautiful bird.”

Then he asked “why would you want to call a bird Bob?” before saying that it is not an English bird.

Judith responded by asking “is it a Maori bird?” before demanding that Lush ask him to define what a New Zealand bird is.

Once the chick fledges in September, it will soar into the skies and fly 9,000 km across the Pacific Ocean to feed near South America.

It will be four years before it returns to the southern hemisphere’s only albatross colony at Pukekura / Taiaroa Head to breed.

It is not the first time that Lush has encountered a caller regarding Maori place names.

Last year, Lush was shocked to receive two calls during her New Zealand born women program who insisted on mispronouncing the Maori names of the places where they were born.

Even after being told the correct pronunciation, both people made it clear that they would never begin to pronounce it correctly and insisted that they had the right to say the name of the place the way they had always been told to say it.

“If I told you how to pronounce it, would you?” The presenter asked the first caller, an 83-year-old woman from Ōpoho, Dunedin.

“No. Because it’s mine. My region,” replied the woman.

The caller insisted that she meant “without disrespecting anyone” but the host pointed out that it was disrespectful as he said the caller was “being deliberately ignorant”.

“Like the hell I am,” she replied.

A second person, from Mosgiel, called to express solidarity with the other listener and said that “an older person should be respected for the way they grow up.”

“We don’t talk like that here,” said the caller.

“Wow. You’re extraordinary. This call should almost go to Te Papa,” Lush replied. “You are deliberately misrepresenting a language.”