Te Reo Māori
Te Reo Māori
“Tōku reo, tōku ohooho. Tōku reo, tōku māpihi maurea. Tōku reo, tōku whakakai marihi”
Executive Summary
The Māori Language Act in 1987 declared Te Reo Māori as an official language in this country. The only other official language in Aotearoa is Sign Language.
Estimates report that approximately 20% of the Māori population and 3% of people living in Aotearoa can speak Te Reo Māori. The proportion of Māori able to hold an everyday conversation in the Māori language decreased by 3.7% between 1996 and 2013. The UNESCO Languages Atlas classes Te Reo Māori as a vulnerable language. This is a problem and it is unacceptable.
As a result of this dire classifaction, the Māori Party legislated the Te Ture o Te Reo Māori Act 2016 but, there is much more work to be done.
To date, there has been marginal resource injected into the revitalisation and protection of Te Reo Māori in comparison to the English language and little has been done to affect enduring systemic change.
The Māori Party attributes the lack of systemic influence in policy to the crown’s reluctance to acknowledge Te Reo Māori as equal to the English language.
The Māori Party asserts under Article 3 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi where we are promised the same rights as English citizens, that Te Reo Māori me ōna tikanga katoa be treated and valued exactly the same as the English language - Mana ōrite.
The Māori Party will;
• Change New Zealand’s name to Aotearoa by 2026.
• Replace all Pākeha place names, cities and towns to their original Māori ingoa by 2026.
• Invest $50m into the establishment of a Māori Standards Authority; an independent statutory entity whose role will be to audit all public service departments against cultural competency standards, including the monitoring and auditing of language plans.
• Establish Te Marama o te Reo Māori.
• Double Te Mātāwai funding ($28m)
• Remunerate Primary and Secondary school’s and kaiako based on their competency of Te Reo Māori.
• Ensure that Te Reo Māori and Māori History are core curriculum subjects up to Year 10 at Secondary Schools.
• Invest $40m for Early childhood to Secondary School kaiako to develop their reo.
• Require all Primary Schools to incorporate Te Reo Māori into 25% of their curriculum by 2026 and 50% by 2030.
• Invest $20m into the development of Te Reo Māori resources.
• Require all state funded broadcasters (workforce) across all mediums to have a basic fluency level of Te Reo Māori.