It has been a day of celebration and reflection for those who delivered the Māori Language petition exactly 50 years ago.

The day kicked off with a dawn ceremony at the National Library where mana whenua blessed an exhibition created in its honour.

The exhibition, named Tōku Reo, Tōku Ohooho – My Language Is My Awakening, included the petition itself, photos and videos.

Te Reo Māori Society member Dr Rob Pouwhare felt a mixture of emotions at the exhibition, including joy at how far the language had come.

“Things have advanced so quickly, so much is happening and I’m so thrilled that our kids are connecting with the language. Not just our kids, I see many New Zealand kids, Pākehā kids also connecting with the language,” Pouwhare said.

Māori Language Festival director Mere Boynton said it had been an emotional process.

“It is such a significant time for us and the petition is really the kaupapa, it’s essential, it’s the ngako of this hui ahurei and that’s the reason why mana whenua asked for a hui ahurei so that there was taonga that people could see,” Boynton said.

Contrasting scenes
Come midday there were contrasting scenes to what unfolded on the steps of Parliament in 1972, when the group including Ngā Tamatoa, Te Reo Māori society and Te Huinga Rangatahi, led by kaumātua Rev Hemi Potatau and Te Ouenuku Rene, delivered the 33,000-strong signed petition to MPs.

They were the champions from across the motu calling for the revitalisation of te reo Māori — and it was key moment in the reclamation.

But today — 50 years on — tino rangatiratanga flags flew on the forecourt, te reo Māori was heard throughout the crowd as thousands came together to reflect and remember the battle fought for the language.

Many in the crowd included kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa students — and other students and members of the public from near and far, young and old.

Those gathered on the stage and just in front included members of that ope that arrived there half a century with a goal — a goal to keep te reo Māori alive.

There were others of course who were not there — like the late like Hana Te Hemara who spearheaded the petition and its message — and those rangatira who led them but they were top of mind for all attending.

When RNZ asked Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Raki Paewhenua year 11 students Marara and Kahurangi what they would think now, their response was, “I think they would be proud”.

‘Long way to go’
“But we still have a long way to go,”

That was a key sentiment of the day — reflecting on how far Aotearoa has come in 50 years but how far there still is to go in the revitalisation and now increase of the use of te reo Māori.

Rawiri Paratene, who stood with his daughter and Greens co-Leader Marama Davidson, was touched by the event.

“I’m proud to be part of it and great to see heaps of my mates and see them on the stage and they’re all fluent,” Paratene said.

Davidson said: “We’re all proud of my pāpā, my nana who was the generation who were traumatised to lose our reo and her love for her tamariki lives in us still.

“I’m proud that my dad was part of an amazing group of rangatahi. I can’t believe they were 18-17”.

Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke — a descendent of Hana Te Hemara, who handed over the petition — also spoke at the event.

Half a century later she had picked up the rakau and spoke of the wins Māori have had since then.

“Māori Health Authority, Māori wards, Matariki, kura kaupapa, kōhanga reo, Te Matatini. We’re even decolonising our blankets and chocolate,” Maipi-Clarke said.

‘Are you ready’ plea
She ended by asking the audience if they were ready.

“I’ll leave the decision with you whether you want to jump on our waka or not, because with or without you we will sail in both worlds.

“We’ve come so far but we’ve got so long to go. Let’s see what we can do in the next 50 years.”

Māori Language Commissioner Rawinia Higgins said it was up to the next generation to carry on strengthening the language.

“As much as we take for granted today the language and all the initiatives that have come out of the language, I think there’s so much more to do and it’s the young people,” Higgins said.

“So the young people brought this petition to parliament, it’s the young people who are here today celebrating that and hopefully find inspiration from all those unsung heroes.”

Supporters of te reo had come so far in that time — and those signatures had not gone to waste, she said.

She was encouraging rangatahi to speak with their grandparents about their fight to keep the language going with hopes it would be even stronger in another 50 years.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

On the 35th anniversary of te reo Māori becoming an official language, the Māori Language Commission is warning more work is needed to ensure its survival.

In 1987, a bill introduced by Koro Wetere was passed after years of campaigning — including the Māori language petition, the land marches and Ngā Tamatoa movements.

Until the late 1960s, the language was officially discouraged and tamariki faced corporal punishment for speaking their native tongue.

Broadcaster and educator Dr Haare Williams — on an RNZ panel about the language bill broadcast in 1986 — said it was crucial for the country that it survive.

“We should never underestimate the emotive power of the Māori language. The danger of loss is irretrievable and like the plague the danger is contagious,” Williams said.

“Should we lose the Māori language in this country, both Māori and Pākehā will be the losers and both will be guilty of allowing it to die.”

Thirty-five years later, Te Taura Whiri i te reo Māori chief executive Ngahiwi Apanui is celebrating where te reo is at but also taking stock.

Demand for courses high
While demand for courses is through the roof and about 30 percent of people today consider themselves proficient in te reo Māori, it would still be classified as endangered.

Apanui said the goal of one million reo speakers by 2040 was still a long way off.

“Only 3000 teachers today to satisfy demand for kids going into Māori medium and for English medium, they need 30,000 teachers. So that kind of gives you an idea of the problem or the issue that we face,” Apanui said.

“The good thing is there’s unprecedented demand for te reo but the issue is what is the production line.”

That was evident in the disparities faced by the very language nests that are meant to help the reo flourish.

Kohanga and Kura Kaupapa were set up in the same wave in which Parliament acknowledged te reo Māori. But since their inception they have had to fight for funding, resources and acknowledgment.

Te Rūnanganui of Ngā Kura Kaupapa chair Rawiri Wright said if they were better resourced, successive governments would be closer to their own reo goals.

“There were more than 800 kōhanga reo, there are now 480 there or thereabouts and if Kura Kaupapa Māori had been properly and equitably resourced … we currently have 6500 students in kaupapa Māori but there should be closer to 10,000.”

inequities over the language
Wright said teaching the language runs deeper than just understanding what was being spoken.

“It’s not just about reo Māori, it’s about mātauranga Māori, tikangi Māori, Māori worldview, Māori face, belief, essence and just being Māori,” he said.

Ngahiwi Apanui said there were still inequities in accessing the language, and mainstream schools were important to addressing that.

“Not all Māori are in Māori medium … and often it’s socioeconomically related, if you look through South Auckland, for instance, you won’t find as many children coming out of families speaking te reo Māori as you would if you looked at the middle working class sector of society in Wellington,” Apanui said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Whether he knows it or probably not, the year Joe Bennett arrived in Aotearoa from England was a milestone year for te reo Māori. After years of petitions, protest marches and activism from New Zealanders of all ethnicities as well as a Waitangi Tribunal inquiry: te reo Māori became an official language in its own land on 1 August 1987.

This was the same day our organisation opened its doors for the first time and in a few months, we will celebrate our 35th birthday.

Just getting to 1987 was not an easy road. It was a battle that had already been fought in our families, towns, schools, workplaces, churches and yes, newsrooms for decades.

In 1972, the Māori Language Petition carried more than 33,000 signatures to the steps of Parliament calling for te reo to be taught in our schools and protected.

Organised by the extraordinary Hana Te Hemara from her kitchen table, well before the internet, this was flax roots activism at its finest.

Hana mobilised hundreds of Māori university students who along with language activists and church members from all denominations, knocked on thousands of front doors across Aotearoa.

As the petition was circulated more easily in urban areas with large populations, the majority of those who signed the petition were not Māori. Most of those Kiwis (who would all be well into their 70s by now) didn’t think that te reo was ‘Māori nonsense’.

Identity as New Zealanders
We know from our own Colmar Kantar public opinion polling that more than eight in 10 of us see the Māori language as part of our identity as New Zealanders. Today in 2022, most Kiwis don’t see te reo as Māori nonsense.

Racist, official policies that banned and made te reo socially unacceptable saw generations of Māori families stop speaking te reo. It takes one generation to lose a language and three to get it back: the countdown is on.

Story time: I was alerted today to an opinion piece in @otd I have thought hard about sharing it but I think it’s important to show the views of people who have significant platforms but also the support they receive. Have a read… pic.twitter.com/hXyUiv7DDK

— Māni Dunlop (@manidunlop) April 27, 2022

Last year and the year before more than 1 million New Zealanders joined us to celebrate te reo at the same time, that’s more than one in five of us. We don’t see te reo as Māori nonsense.

Putting personal opinions aside, the elephant in the room of Bennett’s article is an important and rather large one: te reo Māori is endangered in the land it comes from.

It is a language that is native to this country and like an endangered bird, its future depends on what we do.

And from the behaviour of New Zealanders over the past half-century: it does not seem that we are willing to give up te reo without a fight.

Bennett says that languages that are not useful will wither away because they exist for one reason only: to communicate meaning.

Telling the stories of humanity
Languages are much more than this. They tell the stories of humanity, they are what make us human.

Te reo serves as both an anchor to our past and a compass to the future. It connects Māori New Zealanders to ancestors, culture and identity.

It grounds all New Zealanders by giving us a sense of belonging to this place we call home. It guides us all as we prepare for the Aotearoa of tomorrow.

Our team won the world’s most prestigious public relations award last year for our Māori Language Week work because they valued language diversity much as biodiversity.

The global judging panel told us in the ceremony held in London that we won because our work is critical to the future. Language diversity is the diversity of humanity and if we do nothing, half of our world’s languages will disappear by the end of this century.

And with them, our unique identities, those very things that make us who we are will disappear with them. It may be nonsense to a few but it’s nonsense more than 1 million of us will continue to fight for.

A note from RNZ: RNZ feels a deep responsibility, as required by our Charter and Act of Parliament, to reflect and support the use of Te Reo Māori in our programming and content. We will continue to do so. This article was originally published on Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori — Māori Language Commission — in response to Joe Bennett’s Otago Daily Times article “Evolving language scoffs at moral or political aims” on 21 April 2022 and is  republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz