It’s the time of the year when we celebrate one of New Zealand's official languages, the language of tangata whenua, te reo Māori.
Te Taura Whiri (The Māori Language Commission) has organised Te Wiki o te Reo Māori since the late 1990s.
Ngahiwi Apanui-Barr (Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-a-Apanui, Ngāti Hine), chief executive of Te Taura Whiri, says rangatahi are the future.
Ngahiwi Apanui-Barr. Photo/supplied.
This year’s theme is Ake Ake Ake - A Forever Language and Ngahiwi says a big part of this year’s theme has to do with rangatahi.
“Rangatahi are not only coming out of kura kaupapa and wharekura with skills that my generation would’ve died for but they’re also coming out with an expectation to lead and that’s what I love the most about Māori medium education.”
Ngahiwi says rangatahi in Māori medium education are told they are the best and they are fantastic however, his generation of rangatahi were told they were stupid and dumb.
It’s important to tell our rangatahi that they are not only the leaders for tomorrow but the leaders for now, he says.
“Every kid needs to know that they descend from greatness and they are very capable of doing amazing things.”
Ngahiwi says demographic data for 2050 shows us that 51% of the population will be brown.
He says the political demographic will change and our rangatahi will be leading our country.
Maori medium success
Māori medium education is when a child goes through kōhanga reo, kura kaupapa and wharekura.
More than half of the education is taught in te reo Māori.
Ngahiwi says if a child goes through Māori medium education, they don’t need university.
“You’ve got a wonderful foundation to be successful.”
This is our new reality, he says.
“We need to get used to seeing things like a Māori queen with a master's degree who is a kura graduate and who will bring a new dimension to that role as Arikinui.”
Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po. Photo/GettyImages.
“I’m so excited by it.
“We need to address the role of wāhine as leaders.
“The leadership that we’re preparing our young people for, is a pivotal role for shaping what our future will look like.”
Ngahiwi says one in three under the age of 26 is Māori.
“That’s a pointer of where we're going.”
Ngahiwi says when he thinks of 2040-2050 he would love to see children of different backgrounds talking Māori to each other.
“I hope that if I’m still around then and if I’ve still got all my marbles then I can be around to enjoy it.”
In 20-30 years from now, we will start to see the fruits of what we are doing now with te reo, he said.
“There's a really important investment in infrastructure that needs to be made to ensure more than 20% of our rangatahi are in Māori medium education.
“It needs to be 100%, but we need the kura to be able to do that.”
He said the more people who speak te reo Māori, the more mana it has.
But he says if you don’t know your reo, it’s not your fault.
“You're not less than because you haven’t learned or you didn’t grow up with the reo and it’s never too late.
“Every learner in a te reo Māori class is another reason our language will survive.”
Ngahiwi says we are in a political climate where people don’t feel safe and themes like kotahitanga (unity) are becoming really important.
“One thing about a rainy day is that when the rain comes down, everyone is looking for an umbrella to jump under, but that’s something we should be doing even when the sun is out as well.
“Everything that we have in place for te reo Māori and te ao Māori has been negotiated and fought for.”
The recent climate has shown us that everything can be taken away from us if we take it for granted, he says.
“Regardless of what happens, we will endure, our language will endure and that’s why we’ve gone with the Ake ake theme.”
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