When I was a kid at school, I took part in my fair share of name calling. 

Back then, most of the names levelled at other boys, either in jest or in seriousness, revolved around their sexuality. 

That was all right though, because to my knowledge then, in the South Otago High School roll of over 800 kids in the 1980’s, there was not a single homosexual.

Bollocks there wasn’t. The tragic and shameful fact is that there would have been any number of kids that I went to school with who kept their sexuality so deeply hidden, so camouflaged to blend in with the brutal majority that anything else appeared non-existent. 

The voice of the majority was so deafening, so dominant, so dangerous that no other voice could be heard. Those kids must have grown up wary and weary due to the behaviour of those around them.

I am ashamed that I was part of that voice of the majority, and that terms I used casually as abuse for many years were centred around a core part of other people’s beings.

As life progressed, I met people who identified in ways different to me and I learnt that it just simply doesn’t matter. I imagine that there are still challenges, but I celebrate the fact that kids at school now appear to be able to be who they are without the same tyranny of the majority crushing that human right, that freedom.

That kind of evolved thinking may be part of the reason why I was referred to as “woke” recently. “Woke” appears to be the hot word of abuse these days, designed as most verbal abuse is to deride those who don’t take the same point of view as the abuser. 

“Woke” is one of the favourite terms of derision used by the guy concerned when expressing distaste for people who don’t think the way he does. And that is something he does an awful lot, so sure is he that his way of thinking is the only right way of thinking.

But there is an amusing paradox here that he doesn’t realise because I consider being called woke as a compliment, because when you think about it, a near antonym of woke is asleep. 

I was accused of being woke for my efforts to pronounce te reo words correctly; in this case the placename of one of our towns in Central. Correct use of te reo has been a bit of a topic in Central of late with Council CEO Sanchia Jacobs advising through a newspaper column that in working with iwi on our Destination Management Plan, we were advised that the word Maniototo has been historically misspelt, and that spelt as it is, it has no meaning, value or relevance to mana whenua.

The correct spelling is Māniatoto, meaning plains of blood and likely referring to the red tussocks that covered the landscape. In recognition of our relationship with iwi, our desire to be historically accurate, and to ensure the true meaning of the beautiful Māniatoto is captured in its name, she advised that staff at CODC will now use the corrected spelling in our documents.

As a result of this, I’ve had a few approaches from people not well pleased because they felt they were being told what to do, but that’s not the case at all. Iwi didn’t tell us to change it, just pointed out our inaccuracy. And Sanchia has not told the public to change anything, just stated that council documents will have the true te reo spelling from now on.

I have a particular view on trying to use the right words and the right pronunciation of te reo. Circling back, the guy who called me “woke” also insists on calling me “Cadigen” knowing fine damn well that my branch of the family emphasise the “o” in our name. In doing this, what he is implying is that his view of how my name should be pronounced is the correct one, and that my way of pronouncing my own name is wrong. It is quite an astoundingly arrogant viewpoint when you think about it.

As I say, I have been trying hard to say our placenames in Central using proper te reo pronunciation. I’ve never once corrected anyone who doesn’t use te reo pronunciation, but it is quite amazing to me how often I have been told I was wrong, and how often I’ve been told off in the process for trying.

As John Campbell (also woke) pointed out on his last Breakfast show recently; twenty years ago the amount of abuse that came his way for starting the news with Kia Ora was incredible. Time moves on and nothing stays the same; that’s something I wouldn’t want to sleep through.