Perhaps you’ve heard this radio commercial for Land Rover vehicles:
The narrator mentions the world’s longest place name refers to a 900 ft hill in New Zealand (I can’t spell or pronounce the actual name). He then says that this is “Maori Indian” for “the hill where Rangi sat and played the flute for his lady love”. My problem with this ad is with the geographical ignorance required to believe that there is such a thing as a “Maori Indian”. The only definitions for “Indian” that I’m aware of are:
A person from India specifically or the South Asian subcontinent generally
An original inhabitant of the Americas
As Maoris are indigenous to New Zealand, which is neither part of the South Asian subcontinent nor the Americas, what exactly is a “Maori Indian”?
Since the Straight Dope exists for the purpose of fighting ignorance, should we boycott Land Rover as a protest aginst such ignorance?
( loosely translated as ) The brow [or summit] of the hill [or place], where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid [down], climbed [up] and swallowed mountains, [to travel the land], [who is] known as the Land Eater, played [on] his [nose] flute to his loved one.
That Wikipaedia link doesn’t seem to work, Banquet Bear, but here’s one that does. Unfortunately I remember the tedious Quantum Jump track mentioned there, but not the Peter Cape one.
Do we really need another boycott though? Why not just contact Land Rover and tell them what mistake they’ve made?
FWIW I’ve never heard Maoris referred to as Indians here.
I’m willing to bet whoever wrote that ad feels the same way everyone in this thread does. I can see the pitch meeting for this ad right now:
Client: It’s a good commercial, but who’s Morry?
Advertiser: Er, that’s “Maori.” They’re the indigenous people of New Zealand.
C: Oh, you mean like the Indians?
A: Yeah, sort of…
C: Well, why don’t you change it to say “Maori Indian.” Not everybody has a degree in geometry.
A: Do you mean geography?
C: Who the hell is signing the checks around here? When I say geometry, I mean geometry!
A: Yes sir. “Maori Indians” it is.
The sad thing is, the client is probably right. 90% of Americans have probably never even heard of the Maori. When Temuera Morrison played Jango Fett in the last Star Wars film, people complained he was a Mexican stereotype (Altogether now: :rolleyes: ). Commercials aren’t aimed at the smartest people, they’re aimed at the most people. And the people who are smart enough to be bothered by that phrase are probably also smart enough not to base their vehicle purchasing decisions on badly written ad copy.
We could just go back to calling them nig…nig…SHIT! I can’t say it, even to make a snotty joke!
Actually, folks, I love our Maori Indian brothers and sisters. In fact, some of my best friends are Maori Indians. Well, not FRIENDS, actually. More like acquaintences. Um, not really ACQUAINTENCES, really. More like some people I know slightly online.
That was kind of my point (that it would be closer than India or SA, but still completely wrong)… Though I was thinking Australia, NZ et al were part of the same continent (Australasia or Oceana?) - was I wrong?
Maori may be an incorrect name soon anyway. A couple of weeks ago a Maori member of parliment called for Maori to be known as Tangata Whenua (people of the land). They were known as this at the time of the signing of the treaty of Waitangi (NZ’s founding document) now that would be confusing for everyone, though better then Maori Indians.
And just how far is Hawaii from the US mainland? Or Alaska? Sorry if you folks were offended by our grasp of Antipodean geography, but we’re used to our country, much less our continent, sprawling all over a big chunk of the planet.
And we were taught in school that Australia and New Zealand were parts of the continent of Oceana, like Shade said, so blame our teachers.
Sorry, guys. I was under the vague impression that a continent included associated islands, and that NZ and Australia were on the same continental shelf or something and thus qualified. OK, consider some ignorance fought, and I’ll always use an atlas before making any more jokes…:smack:
