As a resurgence in the Māori language continues to gain traction, a homegrown campaign is starting for one of the world’s largest websites to follow suit, and adopt the use of macrons, a cornerstone of Māori.

Christchurch man Axel Wilke said the use of macrons in New Zealand English is changing fast, with print and television media, as well as much of central and local government routinely adopting them.

A macron is used in te reo to indicate long vowels, and although Wikipedia currently adopts macrons for many words – including the word Māori itself – it does not use them for place names, long a bone of contention in New Zealand.

“Wikipedia rules have, for years, stated that place names were “under discussion”, and macrons have not been used in the meantime for place names,” said Wilke.

Wilke is proposing to change Wikipedia’s naming conventions and update hundreds of place names on the website. Wilke says this would be in accordance with the New Zealand Geographic Board, which in 2019 reported that 824 Māori place names had been made official, and about 300 place names now include a macron.

If the campaign is successful, those place names would be updated on Wikipedia. But this is not the first time the proposal has been raised. It was initially discussed as early as 2007, and a campaign to bring in the use of macrons ultimately failed in 2018 after debate over the spelling of Paekākāriki, a small town on the Kāpiti coast, turned nasty, and sparked a national debate about the usage of macrons in the modern day.

“This would mark a big change for Wikipedia,” said Wilke.

“Wikipedia, through years of discussion and debate, has accumulated layers and layers of rules, guidelines, precedents, and style guides.”

Wilke’s proposal is supported by Mike Dickison, a former Wikipedian-at-large – and the first for New Zealand – who said it the campaign is successful a “massive renaming project” lies ahead.

In the last decade te reo has undergone a resurgence in New Zealand, with long waiting lists for classes around the country and many high profile Kiwis learning and incorporating the language into their everyday speech – including the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern.