TE REO MAORI: He turangawaewae nana?

Kaea, Issue 1, 1 December 1979, Page 9

TE REO MAORI: He turangawaewae nana?

Maori organisations are plugging for official recognition of Maori before the language dies out altogether, says Paul Bensemann in this article. A pakeha with a B. A. in Maori from Victoria University, he was Secretary of the Maori Purposes Fund Board before undertaking a course in journalism at Wellington Polytechnic.

E nga iwi kua riro kite po, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou. Takahia atu rate ara whanui a Tane, kite po uriuri, kite po kerekere. Tena koutou nga kanohi ora o te hunga kua wheturangitiai te ra nei. Ko te korero e whai ake nei i tuhituhi i runga i te aroha ki nga taonga o nga tupuna kua riro atu ra. Te Huinga Rangatahi, a confederation of Maori youth groups, is circulating a pamphlet calling for Maori language programmes on television including five minutes news in Maori. The pamphlet, Just Five Minutes, says, “If our efforts do not succeed ... will we see acts of violence against televisions masts and stations as occurred in Wales in 1968?”

New Zealanders who scoff at the possibility of such acts of sabotage here may be kidding themselves. Te Huinga Rangatahi’s pamphlet brings to mind the parallel between New Zealand’s history, and events leading to violence on behalf of the language and culture of the Welsh people ten years ago.

1870 saw an English government imposing a compulsory elementary education on Wales, using the English language in schools. This started a gradual decline in the use of Welsh. Whereas 54.4% of the population spoke Welsh in 1891, this percentage had dropped to 26% in 1961. Te Huinga Rangatahi’s counterpart in Wales, Urdd Gobaith Cymru (The Welsh League of Youth), became alarmed at the decline of Welsh language and cultural life. The group increased its numbers drastically after the Second World War and members wrote submissions, published pamphlets, organised sit-ins, and protested in the streets. Their objection was that Welsh schools and the media were “monocultural” they were totally English.

In the 60s factions of the group went underground. They took to using plastic explosives against television stations and television masts in protest against the lack of Welsh content on television.

The late 1960 s and the 70s brought better things to Wales. In 1967 the Welsh Language Act was constituted and it affirmed “the equal validity of Welsh with English in the administration of justice and conduct of government business throughout Wales”. Bilingual teaching, using Welsh as the main or secondary medium of teaching was established in many schools. In 1973 the Welsh Language Council was set up as guardian and official promoter of the language. Today Welsh is used with pride and without any apparent economic drawbacks. The weekly press includes articles in Welsh, there are bilingual papers, and also papers solely in Welsh. A new T.V. channel is starting in Wales and has a Welsh language service as a programming priority. Back here in New Zealand Maori has a long way to go before arriving at the happy state of affairs now existing for the Welsh language. Today only about 70,000 speak Maori,

whereas in Wales 540,000 speak Welsh and they have a million less people in their country. And the future of Maori doesn’t look bright only a tiny fraction of New Zealand children speak the language. Decline in the use of Maori has the same nineteenthcentury root cause as the decline in Welsh. In 1858 the New Zealand Government declared “Native Schools” ineligible for financial grants if English were not made the language of instruction.

But the campaign against Maori has been more ruthless than the Wales experience. Until recently the language was regarded as an impediment, and it was literally beaten out of Maori school children.

“Round table” groups at the 1959 Young Maori Leaders conference discussed the declining use of the language and made a number of recommendations, for example “that some Maori language be made compulsory for all Maori pupils and optional for Pakeha pupils”. A member of the 1959 conference, Kara Puketapu, reintroduced that recommendation in the “Questions Please” T.V. programme during Maori Language Week this year. After 1959 protests against the lack of Maori in schools became commonplace. The concern culminated in the presentation of a petition in 1972 which urged the government to introduce optional courses in Maori language and culture for all New Zealand schools. The petition was signed by the then Minister of Maori and Island Affairs, Mr Maclntyre, and about 30,000 others.

The petition was partially successful. Today Maori is taught in about 160 secondary schools and 240 primary schools. Approximately 130,000 children are taught the language at school. The necessary question is, will school Maori language programmes revive the Maori language? Sam Karetu for one doesn’t think so. Last year he said, “The Maori language is enjoying the greatest boost it has ever had and yet I am still pessimistic. lam not convinced... that, because more people are learning it and more schools teaching it, the language will be spoken more .... If it is to survive (it) must be spoken all the time.”

Strong views about Maori in schools were expressed in March this year by Carl Dodson, an educationist who pioneered bilingual schools in Wales. While visiting new Zealand, Mr Dodson called the school Maori language programmes “counter-productive”. “Weekly lessons do little other than make some children hate the second language”, he said. “Bilingual children are produced only when half the school curriculum is in one language, the other half in another.”

Bilingual education is an important step towards the retention of the Maori language, according to Dr Richard Benton, director of the Maori Unit, N.Z. Council for Educational Research. Dr Benton and his staff are making surveys of the number of families who speak Maori. They have also been pushing bilingual education for areas where Maori is still widely spoken.

Ruatoki Primary School pioneered bilingual education in 1977, but there are a number of other primary schools just

switching over to it now. The method of teaching is to use both English and Maori in the teaching of most subjects. Says Dr Benton, “The expected outcome of such a programme is not simply the development of individual bilingualism, but also some wider social consequence the development of tolerance and appreciation of linguistic and cultural diversity, for example, or the reconstruction of a Maori speech community at a local, regional or national level.”

But Dr Benton believes there should be general social recognition of Maori if bilingual schooling is to be effective. “Jobs must be available which require bilingual skills in government, the courts, in private employment, and in the communications media”, he said. “In certain areas of the country... it should be made possible for any one to transact public business and much private business solely in the Maori language with no less convenience.”

Dr Benton suggests that Maori members of Parliament could give a lead in the speaking of Maori. There has never been an MP in a Maori seat who could not speak the language. However none of the present MPs seem keen to follow the example of the late Tau Henare, MP for Northern Maori from 1914 to 1938, who always spoke Maori when he had an important point to make. In a speech in 1916 Mr Henare said in the House, “I may be able to express my ideas in English as well, perhaps, as some members who have spoken on this important bill, but I think it is my duty to recognize that I am a Maori representative, and as such, therefore, I will call for the services of the interpreter.”

Parliamentary recognition of Maori could be of crucial importance to the future of the language. Welsh has official recognition and can be used equally with English in government business. In Wales there is an official government body to promote the language. But Maori is given no such importance in New Zealand. In 1974 Parliament passed an Act giving “official recognition” to the Maori language. The Act empowers but does not require the Minister of Maori Affairs to encourage the learning of the language.

Many people argue that the Maori Affairs Ministers since 1974 have done nothing to encourage the learning of Maori. Some feel that present Minister Ben Couch is in fact discouraging the use of Maori by speaking English on maraes. If no practical steps follow the 1974 Act then “official recognition” is nothing more than meaningless bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo.

At a hui at Raukawa marae last December, Professor Whatarangi Winiata suggested that an official trustee for the

Maori language be appointed. He suggested a permanent staff and advisory council could be responsible for taking steps to conserve and develop the language.

Lack of official backing for Maori is why Television One gets away with “kia ora” in the weather summary as its sole contribution to biculturalism in New Zealand. The news media, and television in particular, are the principal target today for Maori language proponents.

Says Dr Benton, “It could be hard to over-estimate the adverse influence of television on parental efforts to maintain Maori in the home. It is a pervasive medium, much harder to ignore than radio ... television in New Zealand conveys the message ‘only English matters; Maori, if it has any use at all, is a language in which you can say hello and goodbye’.”

Lobbying for better Maori coverage in the media has come from many directions.

In 1975 the Maori Organisation on Human Rights initiated a petition urging that, among other things, “our living language shall take its due place in the news media so that we all may fully understand what Parliament promises us, and so that all New Zealanders Maori and Pakeha may enjoy their full New Zealand heritage”.

In 1976 the New Zealand Maori Council presented a detailed submission to the Select Committee on the Broadcasting Amendment Bill. The submission recommended a number of changes for broadcasting so as to “project multiculturalism in the broadcasting media”. Part of the submission reads, “Multiculturalism for the Maori means the right for minorities to self-realisation of their sense of identity and peoplehood within the framework of existing institutions of the social mainstream. Radio and television are public utilities. Maoris and Pacific Islanders are a substantial 10% of the public and they have a just claim for a greater share in the use of the broadcasting media than they have at present.”

In 1977 Te Reo Maori Society started a petition calling for a Maori television production unit to “ensure the production of programmes in Maori and in English on or relating to aspects of Maori culture, art, and society”. The petition was presented to Parliament in July of last year and rejected by Parliament in July of this year.

* In April this year, Professor Sid Mead circulated a paper outlining a suggested plan for New Zealand’s future which “takes cognisance of Maori aspirations and allows the people to live a life that is satisfying and dignified”. One of Professor Mead’s suggestions is that the Maori people “have control

over a bilingual television channel, a bilingual national radio network and some newspapers and magazines”.

The list of lobbyists goes on and on. In March this year the subject of Maori on television was raised at the South Island Maori Women’s League conference at Ashburton. The editing of T.V. programmes concerning Maori interests was called “inadequate” and it was suggested that a “fuller coverage and a higher standard on matters of interest to Polynesian ethnic and minority groups” was needed.

Perhaps it was because of all this pressure that TVI ran programme summaries in Maori during Maori Language Week.

Reaction to that little bit of Maori may be indicative of public tolerance to more Maori on television. T.V. l’s head of presentation and promotions, Chris Bourn, said most callers commented favourably on the summaries. But some callers were strongly antagonistic and calls were received such as the one saying, “This is a white country, the Maoris have nothing for it and they have no right to monopolise time on T.V.” This is just the sort of silly comment that Pakehas who learn Maori have to put up with. Here are some more examples from my own experience: “The Maori language died out in the 19205.” “It would take you only a few weeks to learn Maori.” “Mr Maclntyre (MP) speaks Maori better than the Maoris do.” “You can’t say much in Maori, it has such a limited vocab.”

Such views are of course based on ignorance. But similar misconceptions prop up the antagonistic stance many New Zealanders seem to have towards the language and the fate of Maori is now in the hands of Pakehas too.

Defenders of Maori face a formidable line-up. Politicians and the media reinforce the public stereotype of Maori being useless. And Mr Muldoon has said in public that he would

prefer to see Japanese taught in schools instead of Maori. There is little chance of the Japanese or Welsh peoples letting their national languages die. But New Zealand has yet to take a pride in Maori we have yet to recognise it as our national language. If Maori is to remain a living phenomenon it needs to be cherished as the most important symbol of our national identity. Government must accept that New Zealand is the turangawaewae of the Maori language and the language should be allowed a place in every area of New Zealand life (including television). Decisive and farsighted action is needed, and quickly. If Maori is left to die New Zealand’s dream of good race relations is likely to be buried along with it.