Why The Survival of Te Reo is Essential to the Survival of Māori

It may feel like it's been going on for weeks, but yesterday the National Party officially kicked off their election campaign with a four-point, $379 million education package. Speaking to a crowd in Henderson, West Tāmaki Makaurau, Bill English announced $160 million of the package would be allocated to introducing a secondary language option at primary schools. English guaranteed all primary school students will have the option to learn from 10 priority languages; Mandarin, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, New Zealand Sign Language and te reo Māori. He stressed the need for New Zealand children to be strong "cross cultural communicators." The picture across the bench isn't that different—while Labour have committed to having te reo offered in secondary schools, they won't go so far as to make it compulsory.

Te reo Māori is a critically endangered taonga. With this policy, National maintain the Crown's tradition of non-committal to protect, preserve and promote te reo Māori. But te reo is critical to the mental health, sovereignty and cultural survival of tangata whenua in Aotearoa.

The Waitangi tribunal's 2011 report Ko Aotearoa Tēnei suggests te reo is in a state of renewed decline. Statistics New Zealand posits a 5 percent drop in fluent speakers from 2006 to 2013. Haami Piripi, former chief executive of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori (the Māori Language Commission) concedes that hope for the language is waning. In an interview with E-Tangata, Haami Piripi noted that "according to language revitalisation theory, we're not going to make it. We don't have the numbers. Or the commitment. Or the status. So, if we are to make it, we'll have to do a lot of work. We're not by any means out of the woods." Even the Crown's key witness in Ko Aotearoa Tenei relented that te reo was in dire need of life support.

It has been 30 years since we assigned 'official' status to te reo Māori, and 177 years since the signing of Te Tiriti.

Māori children internalise whakamā and shame daily for fear their names will be butchered. Generations of Māori are suffering identity crises because without the reo, they remain dislocated from Te Ao Māori, and from themselves. We risk losing our heritage, our unique epistemologies that define our cultural identity and our ability to express ourselves in a manner that is conducive to our wellbeing. Education is the crux of changing the narrative around te reo, and National's education package does nothing to address those concerns. It equivocates a language that is under threat of extinction with the most widely-spoken languages in the world, diminishing the value of the Māori world view. It positions Māori as a minority subject to the whims of a Pākehā hegemony and devalues our role as tangata whenua. It mocks the fundamental partnership forged in Te Tiriti. It promulgates the fear that, were Māori and non-Māori to become effective "cross cultural communicators", Māori may reclaim some semblance of tino rangatiratanga.

Both the Mana and Māori Parties have the most comprehensive approach to revitalising the reo. Māori will be recognised as kaitiaki of the language. Investment into Māori led initiatives will be prioritised, and in accordance with the Māori Language Strategy. Te reo Māori will be a core subject, together with Māori history. Both are vital to the decolonise the current curriculum. Both parties pledge to introduce digital learning schemes in reo, increase funding for kohanga and kura, fund full time study for one person in every non-reo speaking whānau, and make all signage in our centres bilingual. Crucially, both see the resolution as a grassroots, community-led movement. The Green Party is consistent, promising universal, compulsory te reo Māori. The Opportunities Party is on board, too. In any circumstance, we should acknowledge the whakamā of learning te reo for culturally dislocated Māori. Re-entry into Te Ao Māori can be just as traumatic, and we need to find an effective means of transition that mitigates the impact on Māori mental health.

The challenge of making te reo compulsory is drastic by necessity, but the approach must be multi-faceted and within a Māori framework. Vehicles for conveying te reo, like kapa haka and ma rākau, must be supported. Dialectical nuances must be privileged. We cannot afford to half-ass this. Colonisation eradicated te reo Māori through punitive tactics, and if we are to salvage what remains, we must be equally as aggressive with policy. National's stance on te reo Māori is to increase funding, but the pool grows smaller each budget. By failing to specifically address the reo crisis National are crippling its progress. They are not witnesses to the decline of te reo Māori. They are active in its suppression.

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