A blow to te reo heartland

By ALAN PERROTT education reporter

When you travel through the remote Northland settlements of Matawaia, Motatau and Orauta it is difficult to see why they merit spots on a road map.

Other than scattered homes and marae, there are no shops or service stations and the loudest sound is often a distant moo.

Yet each is the centre of a distinct sub-hapu or extended family group of the Ngati Hine hapu, some of the most Maori of Maori.

What they lack in streetlights they make up in pride - "uniqueness" often comes up during conversations with locals.

Unhappily, they may lose their Maori immersion and bilingual schools through the Education Ministry's latest network review, a process that has divided families and driven others to despair and anger.

Most staff members at the schools only entered teaching so they could came back and help their people, but a combination of small-town divisions and lack of jobs in the area has seen rolls shrink to uneconomic levels.

Te reo is strong here. Until recently it was one of the few areas where schools were not needed to keep the language alive as Maori was basically the first tongue.

One of the first kohanga reo was at Matawaia and Sir James Henare, from Motatau, was the movement's first patron.

Malcolm Rand had a close association with Ngati Hine while working for the Whangarei Community Arts Council.

"You can count the number of places where te reo is such a fundamental part of life on one hand.

"This place is unique and it makes their young people very grounded in who they are. Once that character is gone, it's gone from the planet."

The centres may be just a few kilometres apart, but they retain and foster their subtle differences in dialect and protocol, an achievement that fuels their reluctance to amalgamate.

"We would not feel as great at another school as we would here," says Margaret Prime, at Motatau.

She believes differences provide identity.

The schools are powerful symbols as physical links to past generations when pupils were punished for speaking Maori.

Ken Brown, a parent attached to Orauta School, boils at the prospect of the Government preventing them from repairing the blows his grandparents suffered.

He hopes the iwi can provide a financial lifeline, but anticipates a battle with Wellington.