GORDON LIGHTFOOT | Local
John Leighton, 55, has made great strides towards making New Zealand a more equal society for Māori by greeting his mostly white staff today with a friendly “Morayna”.
Leighton, the new general manager at Whakataki Fish and Seafood, never thought he’d be the poster boy for cultural sensitivity. “Hey it’s not difficult to do and it’s a step in the right direction” he beamed.
“The seafood industry works closely with iwi and mowree so it’s really important that we uphold tee tirritty”.
Leighton claims that he has never been on any cultural competence training courses and that he just embraces other cultures without much effort at all. “Nah haven’t done any tee rayo classes or anything, think I’ve just got a natural gift for pronounce-iation.
“You see, with the word ‘morayna’, the way it’s spelt it looks like it’d be pronounced ‘moreena’, but you’ve just got to know that in mowree you say the ‘e’ more like an ‘ay’ sound. But like I’ve said, I just have a natural ear for languages.
“I also did French in third form. Bon-jaw mishurr, gemma pel John”.
When asked if the rest of his staff would be getting cultural competency training, Leighton questioned whether it was necessary. “I’ll probably run a couple of tee rayo sessions myself, no point spending money on externals when you’ve got the talent in-house”.
A representative from the local iwi declined to comment.
More to come.
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