The former New Zealand and Māori rugby league player Issac Luke says he was almost forced to watch the coverage of last weekend's All Stars rugby league match in Sydney "on mute".
Luke was among many people to criticise the Fox Sports and Channel Nine commentators for mispronouncing Māori players' names in the game between the Māori All Stars and the Indigenous All Stars.
Although it was not all personnel in the commentary, with Andrew Voss and Billy Slater saying Māori correctly, the Rabbitohs premiership winner said it was noticeable enough to make him and his family "furious" while watching the match.
Former Kiwis hooker Isaac Luke Photo: Photosport
"It was pretty disturbing," Luke said.
"I almost watched it on mute.
"Me, my mum and brother, and I'm sure many other people were too, getting more and more furious as the game went on.
"I think what also hurt was the fact that Brandy [Greg Alexander] played a couple of seasons with the Auckland Warriors. He would've been around people pronouncing it correctly.
"I get they [sport commentators and on-air personalities] may stumble over players' names sometimes and they won't always be able to get it right, but especially with the word Māori, there didn't seem to be any effort there from certain people."
Alexander, who ran out for the Auckland Warriors from 1995-96, was remorseful after hearing of his wrongdoing and said during his time playing and since transitioning into sports commentary, he has never been corrected or told his pronunciation of Māori was disrespectful.
"I'm sorry that Issac and others feel hurt from how I was pronouncing the name," Alexander said.
"At no time would I purposely disrespect another culture, but I have, so I apologise for that.
"No one has explained to me the difference and that actually saying 'mow-ree' is disrespectful. No one's ever said that to me, ever," said Alexander.
"Isaac doesn't know me, and I don't know Isaac apart from watching him play but if ever Issac wants to ring me and take me through it, I'm available."
From now on, Alexander said he would "absolutely" pronounce Māori correctly if given the opportunity to cover an All Stars match again in the future.
Greg Alexander played for the Warriors in the mid-1990's Photo: Photosport
The Ingoa Project, founded by Jessica Macartney, provides sports media professionals with sessions to improve confidence and competence in the pronunciation of athletes' names with Māori and Pasifika heritage.
Macartney said the responsibility to say traditional names correctly is the responsibility of commentators who are getting paid to call games.
"Yes, the players can help them with pronunciation but at the end of the day, it's not up to the athletes," Macartney said.
"The athletes are paid to play football and during the All Stars game, they played spectacular football, but the same can't be said for some people that were paid that day to effectively communicate and cover the game."
The other component that was widely noticed throughout the community was the way "Māori" was being spelt - without the macron above the "ā".
"People make all these excuses about how hard they [the words or names] are. But really, it's because they haven't put effort into learning the formula," Macartney said.
"A lot of people run into difficulties pronouncing Māori when they don't understand the vowel sounds.
"In Te Reo Māori it is very common to have two vowels together. This is a vowel blend. The 'ā' and 'o' together in the word Māori are blended but the macron elongates the 'ā' sound.
Macartney said non-Indigenous people need to understand that pronunciation in First Nations cultures has a deeper meaning than some may think.
"The important thing to know here is that Māori language doesn't exist in isolation - like English does - Te Reo Māori is part of the culture. That's one of the main reasons it's a sign of disrespect when words or names are pronounced incorrectly," Macartney said.
Māori coach David Kidwell (left) says Te Reo is important to the Māori All Stars culture. Photo: Photosport
Māori coach David Kidwell said it will be important to rectify the pronunciation or hire the right commentators if the game does head to New Zealand next year.
"For us to take it back to New Zealand it will need to have people commentating that are pronouncing Māori and players names correctly," Kidwell said.
"And even if it doesn't, that needs to be corrected.
"I know of some commentators though who are actually trying to pronounce Māori and traditional names correctly. That effort doesn't go unnoticed."
Te Reo Māori is an important part of Kidwell's coaching style throughout the Māori All Stars campaign.
"I actually use our language in our game plan," Kidwell said.
"I had a lot of players who have grown up here in Australia and didn't get the opportunity to grow up learning Māori language so for me to be able to implement that in our game plan was important," said Kidwell.
"They spoke on the field with it and at training. We also have the haka and karakia [prayers]."
-ABC
