Life revolved around family, Maori language
John Moorfield worked, quite literally, until his end. Bedridden in his final weeks as cancer took its hold, he would prop himself on pillows, laptop balanced on the covers, in his modest Chedworth home.
One of this country’s leading contributors to the teaching of te reo Ma¯ ori, his was a race of sorts – to finish the 3000-odd pages of manuscript of Te Iho, a dictionary complete with multiple examples of word usage.
Wife Sue said the dictionary was the culmination of decades of study.
‘‘He’d been working on Te Iho for at least three years and had pretty much finished it before he died.
‘‘He handed it over to two colleagues at AUT to complete for publishing.’’
Te Iho was not John’s final academic thrust. Massey University professor Scotty Morrison, in a tribute to John on Waatea News, said he was working with John at the time of his death on a research project looking at Ma¯ ori language families and inter-generational language transmission.
‘‘He [John] was one of those few people who, when you sat down with them and discussed things and talked about language teaching and language revitalisation, you just felt that you were in the presence of someone who was very, very special.’’
John Moorfield grew up on a mixed dairy-and-orchard Te Kauwhata farm.
When the time came to choose a high school, his parents Robert and Moyae found their nearest boarding school with a good reputation, St Stephen’s in Bombay, was taking on pa¯ keha boys.
Te reo was a compulsory subject in forms three and four at Hato Tipene, where he was taught by Hoani Waititi, and John took to the language, continuing with it throughout his school years.
Out of class, Sue says, John played in the first XV, and performed in what was known then as the concert party – the forerunner of kapa haka.
He majored in geography and Ma¯ ori at Auckland University, where he met French-major Sue Wylie at table tennis in O’Rorke Hall.
They both graduated in 1967, and went on to teachers’ college.
On completing their training, the couple married, as was tradition, in the bride’s hometown of Rotorua (in St Luke’s) and moved to Hamilton, where Sue taught French at Girls High and John geography at Ngaruawahia High, with a secondary focus in te reo.
Sue remembers the Ngaruawahia locals were a little aghast their children’s te reo teacher was a pa¯ keha, but quickly recognised his dedication and sincerity, and came to love him.
‘‘He was very much aware he was a pa¯ keha working in a Ma¯ ori world.’’
After two years John moved to Wesley College, and then followed principal Hiwi Tauroa as a foundation member at Tuakau College.
It was during this time their first son, Peter, was born.
Two years later he was invited to join Timoti Ka¯ retu and Te Wharehuia Milroy in the ranks of te reo Ma¯ ori teaching staff at the University of Waikato in 1976. They were later joined by Hirini Melbourne.
Modest and humble to a fault, John, now recognised as a pioneer and leader in the teaching of te reo Ma¯ ori, initially found the transition to a tertiary institution a challenge.
‘‘I was scared of being a lecturer, I didn’t know what to do,’’ he told a reporter in 2014.
But he was a teacher to his core and, faced with a student body and little in the way of teaching materials, he pioneered the use of new technologies in teaching te reo Ma¯ ori.
He spent 23 years at the Centre for Ma¯ ori and Pacific Development Research, ending his career there as an Associate Professor.
During this time, he worked on a set of written, audio and video teaching resources aimed at adult learners, but which are now used nationally at school level and up. One result of this work is the four books making up the seminal Te Whanake: Te Ka¯ kano, Te Pihinga, Te Ma¯ huri, and Te Ko¯ hure.
Son Luke remembers being banned from running through the family’s paperstrewn lounge, where John was constructing his resources.
‘‘Dad wrote those resources so comprehensively they are still the kit for Ma¯ ori language learning.’’
And if you search Ma¯ ori dictionary’’ on the internet, it is John’s substantial work, Te Aka (the Ma¯ ori-English, English- Ma¯ ori dictionary) that appears first – complete with downloadable app he helped develop.
In 1980 John, with his family, travelled to Aberystwyth College at Prifysgol Cymru (the National University of Wales) to complete his Master of Education. Sue said he was attracted by the struggle of Welsh linguists to re-establish their language.
‘‘He saw the parallels in the language battle but returned home understanding the Welsh were well advanced on New Zealand.’’
Humble man that he was, John once summed up his time at Te Whare
Wa¯ nanga o Waikato thus: ‘‘We were a great team. We did some good things, I thought.’’
John headed to Otago University in 1997 to a full professorship and the leading role at Te Tumu, the School of Ma¯ ori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies.
While at Otago he was awarded his Doctor of Literature for his extensive writings.
He shifted to Auckland University of Technology as Professor in Ma¯ ori Innovation and Development at Te Ara Poutama, and also set up, along with Tania Ka’ai and other colleagues, the national Ma¯ ori language institute Te Ipukarea.
At AUT he not only worked as specialist in Ma¯ ori language, literature and culture, but also was at the forefront of developing new technologies that brought language learning to all through the internet.
John was an adviser to many organisations on Ma¯ ori language, including the Ma¯ ori Language Commission on its monolingual Ma¯ ori dictionary He Pataka Kupua. In 2010 he was made a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order for services to Ma¯ ori language education – but only after Sue managed to persuade him to accept the recognition.
A keen gardener who spent 30 years restoring the gully at the back of their home, John was ‘‘very much a home body’’, says Sue, and preferred staying at home working, and watching rugby on TV.
In earlier years he would support the boys’ soccer games – sometimes attracting sideways glances from fellow parents. He had this habit, says Luke, of yelling advice in te reo at his blondehaired boys.
But he was often away from home, and travelled widely in the interests of indigenous languages, visiting the United States, Europe, China, and the Pacific Islands.
Sue says he became recognised as ‘‘a bit of a gun’’ at writing dictionaries and helped Cook Island colleagues develop texts for several dialects.
Although he said he would never retire (and he was true to his word), he did find the time in the last few years (after Sue did the all the organising} to do some travelling, spend more time with the family, and watch his two grandchildren play sport.
John is loved son of Robert and the late Moyae, loved father and father-in-law of Peter and Rachel, Luke, and koro of Nisha and Matai.
Ko te po ra ki a koe, e Muru e, ko te po¯ ra¯ ki a koe. Ka riro ra¯ te¯ nei o nga¯ toa o te ao pakanga kia ora tonu to¯ ta¯ tou reo Ma¯ ori. I mate i te 19 o te¯ nei marama i to¯ na ka¯ inga tonu. Ko te ta¯ ne a Sue i aroha nuitia nei. Ko te tama a Robert ra¯ ua ko Moyae kua mate noa atu nei. Ko te matua o Peter ra¯ ua ko Rachel, o Luke, a¯ , ko te koroua ano¯ hoki o Nisha ra¯ ua ko Matai.
Charles Riddle
❚ A Life Story tells of a New Zealander who helped to shape the Waikato community. If you know of someone whose life story should be told, please email Charles.riddle@wintec.ac.nz