The Pacific community are reeling at what they've called out as racist comments by an NRL personality and commentator in Australia. Australian Channel 9 rugby league personality Erin Molan has refuted claims she mocked the names of Pacific Islander players on live radio. During a conversation about pronouncing player names with co-hosts, Molan said "hooka looka mooka hooka fooka". She's insisted to media she was referring to an in-joke between the commentary team, but none of her co-hosts responded and instead quickly changed the subject. Entertainment reporter Kristian Schmidt produced a video campaign in 2016 featuring NRL Pacific players in Australia called "Say My Name" - encouraging fans to "help people feel brave - and safe enough to have a go at pronouncing some of the more difficult names". I spoke to him earlier and began by asking him about why the pronunciation of Pacific names matters.
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