6 Feb 2016

Stefan Grand-Meyer and Olga Suvorova: translation

From Saturday Morning, 10:10 am on 6 February 2016
Olga Suvorova and Stefan Grand-Meyer

Olga Suvorova and Stefan Grand-Meyer Photo: Supplied

The Treaty of Waitangi has been lost in translation from time to time – English to Māori and Māori to English – an inaccurate process at the best.

This year, 90 translators will translate both the English and Māori versions of the Treaty into 30 additional languages for the Treaty Times Thirty project.

Treaty Times Thirty marks the 30th anniversary of the New Zealand Society of Translators and Interpreters (NZSTI) who will gift the translations to the nation on International Translation Day, 30 September 2016.

Administrators Stefan Grand-Meyer and Dr Olga Suvorova tell Kim Hill they hope the project will make the Treaty more accessible to migrants who live here and encourage a better understanding of it internationally.

Stefan Grand-Meyer is External Relations Advisor at the Translation Service, NZ Department of Internal Affairs, and a member of the NZSTI. Dr Olga Suvorova is the director of Russian Keys Ltd – a privately owned company specialising in Russian language and culture courses, certified translation and interpreting, and the president of the Wellington branch of the NZSTI.