July 2009

Kōrero Māori

Kia ora, nau mai, whakatau mai ki te paetukutuku hunga pāpaho nei a Manaakitanga Aotearoa.

Kua eke mai anō a te wiki whakanui i te reo Māori ki runga i a tātou, heoi anō, he hiahia nā mātou kia whakamārama atu ki a koutou i te whakahirahiratanga o te reo Māori i Aotearoa nei.

I ēnei rā, e akiakina ana, e tautokotia ana te whakamahi i tēnei reo taketake i ngā wā katoa, nō reira, kia tuwhera kau atu ōu taringa, kia rongo ai koe ki tōna ataahuatanga!

Māori Language Week
27 July - 2 August, 2009

Visitors to New Zealand should listen hard next week as Māori speakers and enthusiastic novices throughout the country join in Māori Language Week.

With the 2009 theme of ‘Te Reo i te Hapori - Māori Language in the Community’, communities all over Aotearoa New Zealand are being encouraged to have a go at speaking te reo Māori and learning new words.

As part of its 20-year strategy, New Zealand’s Māori Language Commission - Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori - is focusing on promoting te reo Māori by the whole family at home. And the commission says the critical support to achieve that, lies within communities.

"Māori language community development underpins the ability for New Zealand as a nation to achieve the objective of te reo Māori being used in the home, every day, by and between all members of the family, and that’s the reason for this year’s theme," Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori chief executive Huhana Rokx said.

Māori language activities
During Māori Language Week, businesses and organisations are encouraged to actively use the Māori language by adopting Māori business names, using Māori signs in the office, including Māori in advertising and marketing material, and encouraging staff members to learn the language.

In the home, whanau or families are encouraged to learn Māori words and phrases, label household items, read Māori language stories, watch Māori television programmes and listen to local iwi (tribe) radio stations, answer the phone and record messages in Māori.

Māori Language Week innovations
Telecom New Zealand has installed 100 Māori words into the predictive text function of their new third generation phones, as part of their Māori Language week commitment.

The Legal Māori Archive - to be launched next week - is the first step towards producing New Zealand’s first Legal Māori Dictionary. The archive of 14,000 pages of 19th century documents illustrates the bilingual nature of New Zealand’s legal history.

Google Māori was launched during last year’s Māori Language Week (2008).

Māori speakers
The Māori language is an intrinsic part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s culture and history, and gives the country a distinct and unique identity.

Many places have Māori names, and Māori vocabulary is used in everyday speech. Māori language is taught in schools from pre-school to university level.

Use of the Māori language continues to develop. About 23 percent of Māori people can speak Māori.

The 2006 census showed 565,300 people living in New Zealand identified as Māori, with 131,600 people able to converse in Māori about 'a lot of everyday things’.

Background: Māori Language Week

• 1972 - a petition presented to the NZ Parliament by Ngā Tamatoa and Te Reo Māori Society called for Māori language to be promoted. Over 30,000 people signed the petition.
• 1975 - Māori Language Day became Māori Language Week, which is now celebrated in July.
• 1985 - Te Reo Māori claim (WAI 11) presented to the Waitangi Tribunal by Ngā Kaiwhakapūmau i te Reo Māori. Māori speakers were estimated to have fallen to about 12 percent of the Māori population.
• 1986 - Waitangi Tribunal’s Reo Māori Report recommended Māori language be used in courts of law, and establishment of a body to oversee and foster use of Māori language.
• 1987 - Māori Language Act declared Māori an official language of New Zealand, and established Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori / the Māori Language Commission.
  

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