The revitalisation of te reo Māori was abundantly evident as a big crowd converged on Parliament to mark 50 years since the Māori Language Petition.
The revitalisation of te reo Māori was abundantly evident as a big crowd converged on Parliament to mark 50 years since the Māori Language Petition.
Signed by over 30,000 people, and delivered to Parliament on 14 September 1972 by Representatives of Ngā Tamatoa and the Te Reo Māori Society, the petition called for te reo Māori to be actively recognised across New Zealand and for the language to be taught in schools. At that point, and for much of last century, the use of the language in this country had declined, having been marginalised by the education system and brutally discouraged.
Among the crowd on Wednesday were many Māori with stories of how generations of whānau before them had been denied access to their language and culture. One of them was nurse practitioner Nayda Heays who works at the Intensive Care Unit at Hastings Hospital.
"A lot of Aotearora think that our tipuna were being punished a long time ago, but that's just one generation ago, and that's my mother. My mother was punished as a five-year-old at a native school in Tuhoi because she didn't learn English until she was five. She was raised by her grandparents. So it's not that long ago, it's in the 1940s, (where people were) being punished for speaking Māori; and the history of Aotearoa where it became very segregated, and then assimilated, where Māori were assimilated into the culture at the time and they believed that. So as a result, my parents - who are fluent in te reo Māori - weren't big advocates to speak it at all. They wanted us to go through a western education system. And now, full circle, their mokopuna are fluent in te reo Māori. So that's my identity journey right now."
People are increasingly embracing the use of te reo Māori in the workplace, as its value is clear.
"A solid 75 percent of the beds (at the hospital) for twelve months of the year are occupied by Maori and Pacific people. If we can't connect through reo then we can't make therapeutic relationships with our patients who need us in the most acute ways. Reo is about identity, and if we encourage the reo then we have a foundation for our identity," Heays explained…