Life for an exiled language
Taipa Area School celebrated Ma¯ori Language Week with a week full of fun and games. It was purely a time for celebrating our native tongue, te reo Ma¯ori. Our goal was to breathe life back into our dying language, and encourage all people, young and old, to embrace our culture. Kia kaha te reo Ma¯ori.
After decades of being ignored and pushed away, the Ma¯ori language is making a comeback. Major movements have been supporting the idea of te reo as a compulsory subject in schools, and significantly more use of the language in media. Ma¯ori language week exemplified those measures, that are all part of the move to bring te reo back.
After being stripped of our privileges to invoke the language, we are finally fighting to reclaim our rights. I only wish we had fought sooner, so people like my grandmother had been allowed to speak the language she was born to speak.
Taipa Area School hosted our own Ma¯ori Language Week, with every house group setting up activities at lunch breaks. The student council presented the school with Ma¯ori line tiggy and Maui MaTau on Monday, and achieved a reasonable turnout, while on Tuesday, Mahitahi’s day was ruined by the weather. Painga had multiple activities on Wednesday; Tapuae, Mu Torere and Titi Toria were some of the options. Manaakitanga had a blast on Thursday as well.
Our te reo teacher, Whaea Aroha, organised most of the week, constantly sending out reminders and turning up to everyone’s games. So while I have the chance I would just like give her a big thank you. People like Whaea Aroha can save our language even if they simply promote small-town events like ours.
Other activities were held all over the country, including a parade in Gisborne, storytimes in the Hutt City libraries, a Ma¯ori Fortnite and many more.
Te reo was banned from schools and politics in 1930, and reduced to a forbidden language, only spoken on marae and the safety of home. The number of fluent Ma¯ori speakers decreased dramatically. English became the dominant language, pushing te reo into exile.
Now, 78 years later, te reo is slowly making its way back into our lives, with Ma¯ori Language Week first appearing in 1975 as an attempt to restore the buried language. But even now te reo is still a foreign concept for people all around the country.
Te reo Ma¯ori should be our first language, not an extra, tagging along behind English. Te reo Ma¯ori is a huge part of our lives, and is intertwined throughout our history. It needs to be accepted back into our society.
I have faith that every member of our country can learn to speak te reo and save our lost language with the help of projects like Ma¯ori Language Week.
Kia Kaha te reo Ma¯ori. Let’s make the Ma¯ori language strong.
"After being stripped of our privileges to invoke the language, we are finally fighting to reclaim our rights. I only wish we had fought sooner, so people like my grandmother had been allowed to speak the language she was born to speak."