Language warrior honours heritage

By PETER CALDER


Waimako Marae lies deep in the Ureweras, high on a hillside above the small town of Tuai, a few muddy kilometres south of Lake Waikaremoana.

It's an unlikely place for a world film premiere but this is no ordinary film. He Whare Korero, with its first screening in the crowded wharenui, is a three-part television series examining the past, present and future states of the Maori language.

The show's director, Tainui Stephens, and producer Wiha Te Raki Haawea were expecting a couple of dozen people in the audience but word has got around and more than twice that number are on hand for the proud moment when the screen lights up.

The filmmakers are manuhiri here, but the star of the show is unquestionably tangata whenua and the most famous son of this marae.

The programme follows one man's language journey to do a stocktake of the state of te reo.

And that man is Timoti Karetu (Tuhoe/ Ngati Kahungunu), a multilingual polymath who is among the country's finest speakers of Maori and a tireless advocate over many years for the preservation and development of the language.

The former secondary school teacher was the foundation professor of Maori at Waikato University and the first Maori Language Commissioner, appointed in 1987, the year Maori became an official language of New Zealand. Now he is the executive chairman of Kohanga Reo National Trust.

But what's most important today is that he was born here and lived here until the age of 12.

The audience for this premiere screening hangs on every word, gasping and whooping with delight when Waimako and Waikaremoana come into view. The sight and sound of the reception warms Stephens' heart.

"It is their story," he will say later, "so we thought we would do the courtesy of showing it to them first."

The visit of a dozen of those involved in the making of He Whare Korero took place in March, just after the film was finished. And it is easy to see how Waimako has spawned a language warrior of such renown.

In the entire day, barely a word of English was to be heard on the marae, other than in answer to the inquiries of a monolingual journalist; children played in Maori, the kitchen team took care of business in Maori, the expressions of excitement and pride after the screening of the film were all in Maori.

When He Whare Korero plays on TV One before later screening on Maori Television, it will be subtitled.

Its burial in a late Saturday night slot may bespeak the regard in which it is held by programmers, although it is infinitely better than no screening.

Yes, it is uncommon for Maori-language programmes to play on mainstream television but that, in a sense, is the issue the programme raises: it is time to accept that the preservation and nurture of a language unique to these islands is the business and thus the responsibility of everyone who lives here.

The title's official English version, Language is in the House, advances the series' central thesis that Maori language will survive and prosper only if it is in the everyday, including the domestic.

The series looks back and forward, interviewing an old kuia about her memories of being branded "dumb" at school but also hearing from Mai Time host Patara Berryman about the value of fluency in Maori as a tool of seduction.

The three parts are named after key lines of one of the most familiar pieces of Maori language: Part 1, Ka Mate (It is death) looks at the historical decline of the language; Part 2, Ka ora (It is life) surveys the revival; and part 3, Ka whiti te ra (The sun shines) examines the future and suggests ways of ensuring the language continues to prosper.

The show adopts an approach that positions Maori as part of a world language community: Karetu visits Hawaii to look at the stress the Polynesian language there is under and goes to Wales to see the remarkable renaissance forged by the establishment of Welsh-language television.

But it never loses sight of the fact that this is the language of our land.

So what is the verdict of the man at the centre of the series, Timoti Karetu?

"It's a great feat," he says, after the screening, "and very well put together. I know [the talking-head format means] it is a lot of language. But that is the whole purpose of it."

And what does he hope the series will achieve?

"I'd like it to prick the conscience of every Maori person in the country. And I'd like it to remind non-Maori that this is a language that has a great deal of meaning and makes us unique in the world."

On screen

*What: He Whare Korero

*Where and when: TV One, Sat 10.30pm