Te reo Moana kicks off Ma¯ori Language Week in style
Language is only part of a development programme has led to stunning results
In a fitting start to Ma¯ori Language Week, the te reo version of Disney’s Moana premiered last night.
The animated blockbuster has been re-voiced in the Ma¯ori language and will be released in Kiwi cinemas next week. More than 30 cinemas are screening the film free of charge.
It will also be featured on Air New Zealand flights from November.
Pacific dancers welcomed moviegoers to the premiere at Sylvia Park last night.
The original script for Moana was written by Taika Waititi and released in the US in 2016. He, along with his wha¯ngai sister, Tweedie Waititi, of Matewa¯ Media, worked with Disney to dub the movie in te reo. Kiwi cast and crew went to Los Angeles to record the voiceovers.
Jaedyn Randell, 16, from Tokoroa, was cast as the voice behind the young Polynesian princess.
“I learned a lot,” she said. “I don’t [speak fluent Ma¯ori] but I attended ko¯hanga reo, I’ve been in bilingual classes and take Ma¯ori at high school so the language is something I’m familiar with.”
Randell said the film would be a good tool for those practising their reo, and she couldn’t wait to see the effect it had.
“I’m very proud to be a part of such a beautiful kaupapa and I’m hoping that this will support the revitalisation of our language.”
Ma¯ori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell said: “This is a movie that was widely enjoyed by wha¯nau and this version will build on that popularity whilst promoting te reo.”
Ma¯ori students do better in schools that teach in a different way — but the language by itself is not enough.
That’s the conclusion of a Ministry of Education report on Te Kotahitanga, a professional development programme that changed the way teachers taught all students.
Principal Chris Grinter of Rotorua Boys’ High School, one of 16 schools in the final phase of the programme up to 2013, credits it for helping 92 per cent of his Year 12 Ma¯ori roll gain Level 2 in the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) last year — well above the national Ma¯ori average of 77.5 per cent.
But he says the changes took his teachers “out of their comfort zone”.
“It’s not about te reo as such,” he says. “It’s more about a learning environment where young Ma¯ori can experience success, and celebrate success, as young Ma¯ori.”
The language is part of the mix. At Rotorua Boys, which has more Ma¯ori boys ( 605) than any other school except the Correspondence School, te reo Ma¯ori is compulsory for all students in Years 9 and 10.
But it’s also about the style of teaching.
“We realised that having the teacher at the front of the classroom putting notes on the whiteboard — we can prove over many, many years that that hasn’t worked for Ma¯ori boys,” says Grinter. “We had to put relationships before the curriculum.”
All staff now recite their pepeha, describing their family and geographical origins.
“If you are talking about relationships with Ma¯ori students, once he hears a pepeha of a new staff member, a Ma¯ori student takes a different view of that person and the relationship starts,” Grinter explains.
Teaching has become more interactive and collaborative.
“Ma¯ori students love working collaboratively, power-sharing, letting students have a greater say on when an assessment happens and what the assessment might look like.”
And all teachers understand and respect not just te reo Ma¯ori but the Ma¯ori world-view.
“For example, our whole school can stand and karakia [pray] on special occasions,” says Grinter.
Ma¯ori students love working collaboratively, power-sharing, letting students have a greater say on when an assessment happens and what the assessment might look like. Chris Grinter, Rotorua Boys’ High
The school has also deepened its longstanding relationship with local iwi Nga¯ti Whakaue, which helps fund some programmes and is involved in school events.
There is only limited data on whether the language by itself makes a difference. In 2015, 78 per cent of students from Ma¯ori-medium kura left school with at least NCEA Level 2, compared with only 62 per cent of Ma¯ori students from English-medium schools. But only 2.9 per cent of all Ma¯ori school-leavers attended Ma¯orimedium schools, so their success doesn’t prove much.
But the ministry report found the whole suite of changes in Te Kotahitanga lifted its 16 schools’ Ma¯ori students’ Year 12 NCEA Level 2 achievement rates from 45 per cent in 2009 to 60 per cent in 2012 — three times the rate of improvement of other Ma¯ori students.
Similar gains were reported by many of the 94 schools in follow-up programme Kia Eke Panuku, which was funded until last year.
But Kia Eke Panuku director Dr Mere Berryman says funding for teacher professional development has now been devolved to local “communities of learning”, often focused on literacy and numeracy.
“We have an increasingly narrow curriculum and assessment focus,” she says. “Culture and identity are being forgotten.”