Another Maori Language Week is here with the usual enthusiastic efforts of a growing number of supporters to keep the language alive and the usual outpourings of ignorant bigotry from those who see no value te reo Maori.
I count myself among the very small number of non-Maori with anything like a working knowledge of the language. My Maori language came from my schoolmates starting in 1949. My father and all my uncles were genuinely fluent. Although none were Maori, they were born and grew up in the predominantly Maori community of Kawhia from the very early 1900s. The language was all around us in our formative years, and we picked up bad habits as well as good with equal efficiency. Today I have no one to speak with and my language has become “ a bit rusty.”
The future of spoken Maori rests entirely with those who are natively fluent and only if they use it very day. Sadly, too many fluent speakers of Maori only use the language on formal occasions, such as we saw at Turangawaewae on the anniversary of the crowning of Kingi Tuheitia and his tangi a few days later. In between the impressive formal oratory and the funeral rituals, they spoke to each other in English.
Using a few Maori words or phrases in an English-speaking setting will only serve to merge those words into New Zealand English and will not enhance the use of Maori. We already have words like dingy, pyjama, and shampoo from India and dozens of other words from many other languages alongside more Maori words than most people realise.
Those who object to Maori lessons in our schools offer no sound reason for that objection other than that there is nothing of any commercial value in speaking a language that is not understood anywhere else in the world. Few of us who have heard the Welsh singing their national anthem in their own native Erse prior to and during an international rugby match have not been impressed with the beauty and passion of the language. Spoken Maori also has a beauty and a poetry like no other, and to sit and engage in gentle conversation with a group of native speakers is one of the real, but sadly now very rare, pleasures of my retirement years.
How is it that there is such a deep resentment of spoken Maori, particularly by many Pakeha New Zealanders. I have struck this many times in many places from seemingly intelligent people who seem astonished that I actually speak the language, to a degree.
In my past professional life as a journalist, having an understanding of spoken and written Maori opened many doors for me that were closed to non-speakers. This was very evident during the Ngai Tahu Hearings before the Waitangi Tribunal in the 1980s. Those of us journalists with the language had a huge advantage over those who did not.
I recently had the real pleasure of speaking to a class of senior secondary school girls, at the invitation of their teachers, who were studying the language. None were Maori but their enthusiasm and ability was truly impressive. They gave me hope.
I have a hope that one day all New Zealanders, Pakeha and Maori, will take ownership of this most enjoyable language as something that makes them unique and special.
Thank you, Tom for sharing this with us. I remember you from my early days in Grey Power and from time to time you would use the reo so fluently within various contexts that i was most impressed – and assumed that you had Maori heritage. Well, actually from your upbringing, it’s apparent that you enjoyed this development of the reo as you grew – lucky you!
A great pity that you were not able to continue to develop Grey Power when you served as National President because you seemed to have much more to offer – and now it’s very much in the doldums!! Good luck in your continuing retirement.