Iwi balance becoming more female

Women have become more likely than men to speak Maori in all age groups under 50. Photo / NZME

Women outnumber men in every Māori tribe and the imbalance is growing, new research shows.

The Waikato University researchers, Dr Tahu Kukutai and Moana Rarere, have found that the ratio of men to women identifying with an iwi has dropped steadily from 96 men for every 100 women in 1991 to 89 men for every 100 women in 2013.

Women have also become more likely than men to speak Māori in all age groups under 50.

In contrast, in 2001, men were more likely than women to speak the language in all age groups over 20.

A 2013 Statistics NZ survey found that Māori women were also more likely than men to know all parts of their pepeha (tribal identity) - their tribal names, rivers, mountains, ancestors and canoes.

The changes appear to be due to male-dominated emigration to Australia, females doing better in education, and women's roles as "cultural connectors" who run local marae, organise family events and keep in touch with relatives.

After a 90-year gap, Censuses have collected iwi affiliations again only since 1991. Since then the ratio of men to women in our biggest iwi, Ngāpuhi, has dropped from 96:100 to 88:100.

Dr Kukutai has previously shown that Māori have migrated to Australia at a faster rate than other New Zealanders this century, lifting the Māori share of the NZ-born population in Australia from 13.8 per cent in 2001 to 17.1 per cent a decade later.

Even by 2001, more Māori men than women were emigrating in all working age groups. Males made up 50.8 per cent of the Māori population in NZ under age 20, but only 47.2 per cent of Māori still here aged 20 to 59.

By 2013 males were still 51 per cent of the Māori population in NZ under 20 but only 45.9 per cent of Māori still here in the working age groups.

Dr Kukutai said another factor was a shift in tertiary students from mainly male to female, possibly affecting numbers learning te reo Māori.

The last elderly generation of native Māori speakers is dying fast, down from 51 per cent of people aged 60-plus in 2001 to 34 per cent today.

The numbers of Māori speakers under age 20 have dropped sharply - from 25 per cent of girls and 21.2 per cent of boys in 2001 to 19.6 per cent of girls and 17.2 per cent of boys in 2013.