Te reo Māori is alive and has a future which is 'far brighter', writes Te Ururoa Flavell. Photo / Ben Fraser, file
Te reo Māori is alive and has a future which is 'far brighter', writes Te Ururoa Flavell. Photo / Ben Fraser, file
COMMENT
It was the American writer Mark Twain who famously declared: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." He was responding after his obituary was mistakenly published.
So it is with te reo Māori.
Earlier this year, a paper in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface predicted atleast the demise - or more likely the extinction - of te reo Māori.
Its findings were partly based on current learning rates of te reo Māori. It said that efforts to stop the rot should focus on producing more te reo Māori teachers and more Māori learning the language.
But as New Zealand's largest provider of te reo Māori classes, our experience at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa - particularly in recent times - shows that while there's evidence to show an earlier decline in te reo Māori speakers, this looks to have halted.
The data from our censuses in 2006 and 2013 showed a worrying fall in te reo Māori speakers (from 157,113 to 148,395), but the 2018 census showed a near 26 per cent increase in Māori speakers (to 185,955).
This reflects what we're seeing with more people wanting to learn te reo Māori with us and our packed classrooms throughout the country.
Te Wānanga o Aotearoa teaches two thirds (66 per cent) of all te reo Māori classes throughout the motu from certificate to degree level.
We have more than 5800 equivalent fulltime tauira (students) studying te reo Māori, but we're still overwhelmed by the demand from New Zealanders wanting to learn te reo rangatira.
Our data shows an increasing trend in demand for te reo Māori classes over recent years, and even the Covid-19 pandemic hasn't stopped this momentum.
We're working with our communities and thousands of te reo Māori practitioners throughout the country as our reo Māori initiative Mahuru Māori began on September 1.
Mahuru Māori first started in 2014 when our kaimahi Paraone Gloyne challenged himself to speak te reo Māori regardless of his circumstances and his audiences during Mahuru (September).
It is our koha, our contribution to the revitalisation of te reo Māori and has been recognised by Te Taura Whiri i te reo Māori (the Māori Language Commission), which shifted Te Wiki o te reo Māori to Mahuru in 2017 so both of our kaupapa could align.
The growth of Mahuru Māori and the increasing numbers of people wanting to learn the language gives us great hope for the future of te reo Māori. There is so much to do.
I recently attended a tangi for a well-known pakeke (elder) in my area of the Bay of Plenty and was taken aback when a number of his adult children said it was their first time on the marae.
Te Ururoa Flavell. Photo / Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images
They told the people of their marae they all felt very stressed and anxious in bringing their dad to the marae, but over the length of his tangi, they had learnt of the warmth of the people and the occasion.
The downside was that they were disappointed in having missed all of the tributes to their dad and therefore none the wiser about his contributions across so many spheres. The tragedy is that it is often death that sparks that understanding of the importance of one's language in coming to grips with one's culture.
From our perspective, the long-term outlook for te reo Māori is far brighter than gloomy, and we're determined to play our part in ensuring its future is one that prospers and continues to grow.
To play a part in this kaupapa, register to participate in Mahuru Māori at www.mahurumaori.com.
• Te Ururoa Flavell is te taiurungi or chief executive officer at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.
