A WEEK OF IT

Kaea, Issue 1, 1 December 1979, Page 11

A WEEK OF IT

Paul Bensemann commends the special efforts of the broadcasting media during this year’s Maori Language Week.

For five days at the Kaitaia school canteen orders had to be made in Maori, otherwise Kaitaia children would be faced with a hungry lunch hour. During the same period, in Invercargill a Maori carver, Bernard de Hair, worked in the foyer of Radio Southland with a week-long display of his craft.

It was Maori Language Week again, and in every little town between Kaitaia and Invercargill, language week activities brought life into schools, shops and offices, newspapers and service clubs.

But the big difference in Maori Language Week this year was the amount of radio and television coverage. Most controversial were the programme summaries in Maori on TVI. Head of presentation Chris Bourn reported being swamped during the week with calls, mostly in favour of the summaries.

The programme summaries were TVI transcripts translated by Tilly Reedy, who now works with the New Zealand Planning Council. The readers were Teresa Hughes, a pakeha who speaks Maori, Tom Roa, a student at Victoria

University, and Mei Taare, a data controller in Wellington.

A variety of television programmes featured Maori content. “Of Course You Can Do It” showed how to make a hangi. “Country Calendar” followed a traditional Maori fishing trip off the Taranaki coast, and there was a screening of Rowley Habib’s play Death of the Land.

Te Reo o Aotearoa’s Auckland studios, managed by Haare Williams, were turned into a “radio marae” for the week, and every other radio station in New Zealand included something Maori in its programme content. Henare Te Ua related Maori myths and legends, Sydney Melbourne sang songs and read poetry, Marama Martin gave us legends from the Taupo area and Selwyn Muru explained the meanings of Maori place names.

All items were well prepared and presented in the weeklong feast of Maori language and culture. The special efforts of the broadcasting people were commendable. They gave Maori Language Week an importance and an impact it’s never had before, and they encouraged the kind of national pride which only comes with recognition of new Zealand’s Maori identity.