The Interislander is reviewing its information maps on board its ferries after a passenger called them out for being racist and a “yuck thing to put your name against”.
Laura Quin and her husband discovered what they felt was “pretty problematic” content on the maps showing the route between Te Waipounamu and Te-Ika-a-Māui – the South Island and North Island – during a recent crossing.
She is asking that the company, owned by KiwiRail, engage mana whenua and other iwi mentioned, and employ a cultural adviser to assess the maps’ content.
"Once we know better, we do better," she told media outlet, Stuff.
Interislander executive general manager Walter Rushbrook ignored specific questions put to him by Stuff but said “thanks for bringing this to our attention”.
“We will review the content to ensure it’s appropriate.”
In a Tweet thread tagging the company Quin wrote: “Hey @interislander … we noticed some pretty problematic (ahem, racist) stuff on your map during our crossing tonight. Shall I share some of it?”
The information panel shows the ferries’ route across Te Moana-o-Raukawa Cook Strait between Te Whanganui a Tara (Wellington) and Waitohi (Picton), giving blurbs about significant locations along the way.
Quin said she alerted the ferry company to her concerns over social media because she was worried it would pay no attention to an isolated email sent in private.
She told Stuff the map mentioned ”wholesale slaughter and cannibal feasting” and a confusion of cultures in a sentence about Europeans being “subsequently dispatched by tomahawk”.
One sentence says: “All 10 were ambushed, killed and eaten by local Maori [sic]”, with no mention of the impact Captain Cook, his men, and colonisation had on the nation.
She posted the blurbs that “jumped up as being most ridiculous”. She felt the narrative was trying to make Māori sound like savages.
“We know about kaitangata, that there was eating of other people, but we don’t talk about cannibalism. It makes it really primitive and removed from context.
“Even the word tomahawk. We are not in America.”
There was no mention of the long-standing issues caused by colonisation, and there was very little about Māori stories and tūpuna, she said.
Quin, who describes herself as Pākehā, but lives in a reo Māori speaking whānau says she wants to use 'white privilege' to be an ally for Māori.
Interislander executive general manager Walter Rushbrook ignored specific questions put to him by Stuff, but said "thanks for bringing this to our attention".
“We will review the content to ensure it’s appropriate.”
Stuff also reached out to iwi mentioned in the blurbs for comment.