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Viva Maori!
27.12.2002

More and more New Zealanders are using Maori in their everyday language.

If you believe New Zealand is just a smaller, greener version of Australia, then think again. In the last 30 years, NZ has experienced a resurgence in Maori language and culture, and it's a sharp contrast to the assimilationist days beginning in the 1880s, when the use of Mäori at school was forbidden.

By the early 20th century Mäori were punished for speaking Mäori at schools. And by the 1920s only the most enlightened private schools still taught Mäori grammar as a school subject. Until the Second World War most Mäori still spoke Mäori as their first language. They worshipped in Mäori, Mäori was the language of the marae, but more importantly, it was the language of the home.

Revival

The langauge revival movement began in the late 1960s at Auckland University as a political movement, and it became quickly accepted by educators. By the mid-1970s, Teachers Colleges began churning out small numbers of Maori language teachers and in the early 1980s 'total immersion' schools began in the Bay of Plenty, in the North Island.

"We have been rubbing shoulders more with each other and that we're seeing that this is an inevitable consequence of that," according to Tapu Misa, a social commentator. "And I think it's happened without quite a lot of New Zealanders actually realising that it has happened - as many of these things do - and it's happening more in the North Island than it is in the South Island and it's also happening more in the upper half of the North Island in Auckland where we have got that mix, where we have got huge numbers of Pacific Islanders and of Maori," she says. "The rest of New Zealand, particularly the South Island doesn't actually ... hasn't actually experienced that."

Redefining 'New Zealander'

Maori has been an official language in New Zealand since the early 1980's and most of the generation just leaving school has grown up being taught at least basic elements of Maori language and culture at school.

And according to Tapu Misa, they're the generation redefining what it means to be a 'kiwi'. Noawadays, even the names of government departments are now written in both English and Maori, and increasingly, Maori words are now used in everyday conversation by White New Zealanders, or Pakehas.

Examples

"Kia ora" is now used as frequently as hello and its not unusual to hear executives say they're off to a hui or a meeting.

If you've only been to the South Island of New Zealand you've missed the part that makes New Zealand so different - in cultural terms at least. It's on the North Island you'll find most of the 700,000 New Zealanders who identify as Maori. And with that critical mass comes a language and culture that's increasingly visible in urban New Zealand.

It's not unusual to see words in newspapers like 'taniwha' without an explanation of their meaning: or to be told by a non-Maori that they're off to a 'hui' - a meeting - or a 'hangi' - a barbeque.

"It's very difficult to define what makes 'pakeha' New Zealand culture. And often when kiwis do go overseas, you know you often get this thing where young Kiwis suddenly launch into the 'haka' and they realise they're not like other white European people, that they actually are different, that they have different cultural experiences,." she says.

The way many Kiwis throw Maori words into conversation was far from common even twenty years ago. Back then a telephone operator made front page news for daring to use a maori greeting.

"She started saying 'kia ora' to her callers. Her supervisor disapproved and put a lot of pressure on her to stop saying 'kia ora' and to say 'good morning' or 'good afternoon'."

Casual chats

These days casual chats in Auckland are more likely than not to throw up a Maori word or two and if you're not sure what the other person has said, you're definitely the odd one out. "Greetings like 'kia ora', 'tena koe', words like 'whanau' - which is extended family or family - 'mana', 'taonga' - which is for treasure; 'iwi' - tribe; 'whaka' - boat or a canoe," says Tapu Misa.

"Something like 'whanau', particularly, I've noticed - I have a couple of Pakeha friends who have no Maori connections at all, and they always talk about having a 'whanau' dinner on a Sunday, which is a sort of a dinner for family and close friends; and 'whanau' is one of those words that encompasses not only the extended family but friends of the family - that's why it's such a neat Maori word."

by New Zealand Herald

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