Immersed in te reo
Te reo is a way of life at Palmerston North school Mana Tamariki.
It is Ma¯ ori Language Week this week, but at Mana Tamariki it is every week of the year, because it is a fullimmersion school, where the aim is to grow and normalise the use of the language.
One of the things families agree to when they enrol their children is to speak Ma¯ ori at home too. English isn’t spoken in classrooms.
Mana Tamariki caters for children from preschool age to high school. It has 60 pupils, including 25 at ko¯hanga reo early childhood, and 12 at high school.
Parents Teanau Tuiono and Terri Te Tau have three of their children at the school. Tuiono said the language was written into history, and it was natural that he would want his children to learn it.
‘‘It’s actually normal to speak Ma¯ ori and for your children to speak Ma¯ori back to you as well,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s a natural place to come and bring my children and join into this community.
‘‘That’s getting more currency around the country.’’
He said his mother was of the generation that had te reo ‘‘whacked out of them’’, but he learnt it as a teenager and wanted his children to learn.
Their children Uiteranga Te Tau Tuiomo, 12, Mataurikiavaikinui Te Tau Tuiomo, 11, and Kiimai Haira, 7, are at the school and speak fluent Ma¯ ori at home.
Although that may seem like a big deal for non-ma¯ ori speakers, it was the norm for Mana Tamariki families, Te Tau said.
Teanau said the family didn’t want to let things slide by.
‘‘We have made the commitment and we are on that journey. It does get easier.
‘‘You might think you have jumped into the deep end. You’ll learn to swim.
‘‘All of a sudden you don’t even realise you are swimming.’’
Te Tau was speaking Ma¯ ori when she was 17 and started volunteering at a ko¯ hanga reo.
The parents at the school speak Ma¯ ori to each other and Te Tau said they were trying to build Ma¯ori-speaking environments.
‘‘Little efforts do make a big difference.’’
The use of te reo has become normalised now to the point where Teanau has started to hear Ma¯ori being used around the city more.
‘‘One of the things I like is you hear people speaking Ma¯ori around Palmerston North. It’s one of the one towns where you walk into the supermarket you hear people speaking Ma¯ ori.’’
Manu Kawana is the school’s te raukura, whose job is to ensure the correct culture is upheld, and is the iwi representative for Rangita¯ ne and Raukawa.
Kawana said when the pupils finished school, it didn’t end, because they became raukura for the school, and helped pass on what they had learnt.
It was about progressing excellence in te reo Ma¯ori. ‘‘It’s a long journey, but it’s an exciting journey.’’
Mana Tamariki started in 1990 and has been on its Grey St site since 2007.
Both Labour and the Greens want more te reo Ma¯ori taught in schools, yet a high-ranking minister concedes finding specialist teachers will be a struggle.
Instead, upskilling existing teachers and increasing Ma¯ori classes during teacher training may be the way forward.
The Green Party will hold a summit later this year to help develop a plan to introduce te reo Ma¯ ori as a core subject for years one to 10 by 2025.
Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis said Labour was committed to increasing Ma¯ ori in classrooms but there were not enough kaiako (teachers) to make the Greens’ proposal feasible.
‘‘We don’t have the capacity to deliver on that. And what we don’t want is to be forcing the language on people and have them not be equipped.’’
Additional teaching resources would also need to be developed.
New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Rui Roa president Lynda Stuart said while it ‘‘embraced’’ a rise in te reo teaching, staffing and resources would be an obstacle. ‘‘There’s been a shortage of teachers with te reo Ma¯ ori skills for many years.’’