Lessons from the Auckland Art Gallery’s typos in te reo Māori

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Construction hoarding around the Auckland Art Gallery shows several errors in the reo Māori copy.

Eda Tang/Stuff

Construction hoarding around the Auckland Art Gallery shows several errors in the reo Māori copy.

A typo in large type explaining the Auckland Art Gallery heritage restoration of its 135-year-old building’s roof has emphasised the importance of quality control in language translations.

Read this story in te reo Māori and English here. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei.

Since the end of March this year, the building has been jacketed with construction hoardings explaining the action behind it in English and te reo Māori.

One of the panels facing the busy intersection of Wellesley Street and Mayoral Drive reads “E tūwehra tonu ana te toa o te whare toi?” The phrase, meaning “is the gallery shop still open?”.

The word “tūwehra” is supposed to be ‘tuwhera’ meaning to be open. The word also carries a redundant tohutō (macron) on the u. The use of a macron can, in some cases, change the meaning of a word.

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The gallery was not aware of the errorwhen it was brought to their attention last week.

A spokesperson from the Auckland Art Gallery said the translations were completed by an independent contractor who the gallery frequently used for translations.

The contractor was paid $250 for the hoardings project from the gallery’s heritage restoration project budget funded by Auckland Council.

Hēmi Kelly, a te reo Māori translator, educator and advocate, said it was great to see more businesses and organisations actively taking it upon themselves to include te reo more.

“How do we go about doing it in a way that’s correct and avoids mistakes so that we start seeing good quality translations and signage throughout the country?” Kelly said.

“In the world of translation, we must uphold a standard of high quality.

But we are only human.

It might be the error of the translator or the designer, but it’s good to identify those errors, so they don’t occur again in the future.”

Hēmi Kelly, reo Māori educator, translator and author wants to encourage the continued use of te reo in public spaces in a way that ensures good quality translations and signage.

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Hēmi Kelly, reo Māori educator, translator and author wants to encourage the continued use of te reo in public spaces in a way that ensures good quality translations and signage.

Kelly said, although the design was reviewed by multiple leaders and departments before it was erected, it needed a quality control process that involved another translator registered with Te Taura Whiri (Māori Language Commission).

“If we’re going to seek guidance and support in any other area in business, we go to the professionals. And so we need to reach out to the professionals – the people who have committed themselves to this profession, and also allocate the budget to it,” he said.

“We cannot rely on Google, or go to a mate or that one employee in the company who might have a bit of reo.

Quality control is an important part of our job as translators”, Kelly said. “And because most companies don’t have that know-how, it’s the responsibility of the translator to facilitate and complete the QC process with a licenced colleague.”

In his practice, Kelly would allocate part of his fee to another licenced translator to quality control his work.

“That person needs to have the same knowledge as me or better in order to spot any mistakes, whether it be punctuation or grammar,” he said.

On another panel of the hoarding, ‘tuwhera’ is used again with the letters in the correct order, but with a redundant macron.

Eda Tang/Stuff

On another panel of the hoarding, ‘tuwhera’ is used again with the letters in the correct order, but with a redundant macron.

A gallery spokesperson said the translator who worked on the wording was not registered with Te Taura Whiri but recommended by mana whenua.

“Our translators have their own quality control measures in place, but we also reviewed the translation internally before publication, and in this case the error was missed,” the spokesperson said.

“Within the gallery, we do have a translator registered with Te Taura Whiri that reviewed the copy.”

The costs of the hoardings were factored into the overall project budget, which includes reprinting for updated design and removing graffiti. The cost of replacing a section was approximately $500 and the gallery was working to get the error fixed in the coming weeks.

A spokesperson from Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori said that they believe “New Zealanders from all walks of life have the right to use the language.

“Still, there is a responsibility in the public forum to uphold the mana (integrity) to the best it can be.

“There is an understanding that no one is perfect and people make mistakes,” they added. “Te reo that is incorrect can be rectified, but te reo that isn’t spoken cannot be fixed.”

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