Time to confront classroom abuse for te reo
Te Wiki o Te Reo Ma¯ ori – Ma¯ ori Language Week, which begins tomorrow, is the time of year when some people think te reo Ma¯ ori is ‘‘shoved down their throats’’.
Although unrelated to Te Wiki o Te Reo Ma¯ ori, Don Brash springs to mind with his whining about Guyon Espiner’s use of Ma¯ ori greetings on Radio NZ.
Unfortunately for Ta¯ nara (Donald/don) and others of his ilk, te reo Ma¯ ori has become much
more accepted in ‘‘mainstream society’’, although there’s still a long way to go.
During Te Wiki o Te Reo Ma¯ ori last year, some big organisations, including Stuff, rebranded with te reo Ma¯ ori names. Stuff became Puna and Trade Me became Tauhoko. It would be great if they adopted dual names permanently.
Some organisations responded in other meaningful ways, such as Spark’s Kupu app, a mobile application offering users instant te reo Ma¯ ori translations of objects around them. They are all part of a rising tide of ideas that have worked to promote and normalise te reo Ma¯ ori in recent years.
At local government, Wairoa District Council voted in a te reo Ma¯ ori policy to gradually replace its existing signs with bilingual wording, featuring te reo Ma¯ ori ahead of English, while Rotorua ‘‘officially launched its status as the first bilingual city in New Zealand’’. Last year, Porirua announced a ‘‘goal of becoming a te reo city by 2040’’ and began rolling out bilingual road signs, which it said was ‘‘a reflection of our commitment to te reo Ma¯ ori and our mana whenua’’.
I suspect that it’s only a matter of time before other councils do the same. Perhaps one day we will be like Wales, where all signs, including road signs, are bilingual and seen as a badge of pride.
More recently, the Government announced Te Ahu o te Reo Ma¯ ori: a $12.2 million programme aimed at normalising te reo Ma¯ ori in the classroom. Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis believes our classrooms will be more bilingual in six years, with every child at an early childhood education centre, and primary and intermediate schools having te reo Ma¯ ori integrated into their learning.
This is about as compulsory as Labour’s Ma¯ ori caucus can make it because of Winston Peters’ anticompulsion stance.
The education sector has made decent strides in recent years, albeit at varying degrees, to include te reo Ma¯ ori and culture within classroom settings. About 700 educators have signed up to the Te Ahu o te Reo Ma¯ ori programme.
The normalisation of te reo Ma¯ ori in the classroom will, in the long term, bring further benefits to the workplace, if a recent study by AUT’S Te Ipukarea Research Institute is correct. Their research found organisations that incorporate te reo me nga¯ tikanga Ma¯ ori (Ma¯ ori language and culture) in their workplaces benefit from increased job satisfaction.
At a personal level, according to psychiatrist Dr Hinemoa Elder, being bilingual has ‘‘positive benefits for the human brain, social and emotional development, and can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by around five years’’.
It’s a no-brainer: teaching our kids to be bilingual is beneficial for them, and unless they’re planning to live overseas, learning te reo Ma¯ ori arguably has more advantages than other languages.
Unsurprisingly, then, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern previously announced her baby, Neve Te Aroha, would be raised speaking both te reo Ma¯ ori and English.
That’s in stark contrast to less than 100 years ago when thenprime minister William Massey was making public statements such as: ‘‘Nature intended New Zealand to be a white man’s country, and it must be kept as such’’.
It was little wonder that this was a period of time when te reo Ma¯ ori was officially discouraged and Ma¯ ori children were beaten at school by their teachers for speaking the only language they knew.
Former Labour government minister Dover Samuels’ call earlier this week for the Crown to apologise for beating Ma¯ ori children must be actioned. Widespread acts of physical violence against children by the state, where Ma¯ ori children were routinely left bruised and bleeding, require an apology.
Research earlier this year showed ‘‘children who witness divorce, domestic violence or drug abuse at home before they start school have more trouble with basic reading, writing and maths’’.
Similarly, being regularly bashed by a teacher might also have some long-term effects on children and their relationship with learning and the education system – not to mention generations that have followed.
The Government needs to tidy this up now while some of the victims are still alive and apologise for the violence carried out on behalf of the state.
Te Wiki o Te Reo Ma¯ ori might be the appropriate time to do it.
The call for the Crown to apologise for beating Ma¯ori children, must be actioned.