Six60 has clapped back at an Australian Sky News host who scrutinised the amount of Te Reo on one of the band’s posters for an upcoming tour around Aotearoa.
On his Sky News show ‘The World According to Rowan Dean’, Rowan Dean had a bit to say about the uptick in this country's usage of the Māori language over recent times.
“In New Zealand at the moment there’s been a big push to be more inclusive of the Māori, of the Māori language, the so-called iwi. There’s a lot of new language coming out,” he said, before pulling up an image of Six60’s tour poster - he completely botches their name, by the way, calling them “sixty-sixty or whatever”.
“It’s all in Māori,” he said of the poster. “There’s not a word of English anywhere in there.”
I hate to break it to you Rowan, but the first and largest printed word on the poster is in English... and you couldn't even pronounce that right! Maybe relax a little??
Posting across their social media, the band responded to Rowan, clapping back with kindness.
“We got called out for putting te reo on our poster, saying it’s against free speech,” the caption reads.
“SIX60 is all about bringing people together, no matter than language. Free tickets to this guy if he wants to experience some positivity.”
In the post, they show the clip of what Rowan said, poking fun at his pronunciation of the word ‘Māori’ - “Meow-ree,” they captioned it as. “If he hates our poster in Māori, he must really hate this,” they then wrote, before showing an awesome montage from one of their shows, including them, playing the Te Reo version of 'Don't Forget Your Roots' called 'Kia Mau Ki Tō Ūkaipō’ and the Ngā Tūmanako kapa haka group performing the 'Ka Mate' haka.
People in the comments were voicing their support for the beloved Kiwi band.
“Way to call this out,” Kiwi footballer Holly Wilkinson wrote. “Dude needs a history lesson on Aotearoa. What an egghead.”
If you want to witness Six60 performing live, no matter what language, check out the dates and tickets for the SIX60 SATURDAYS 2022 below:
