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Labour’s Maori spokesperson say the future of the Maori lies in the mainstream classrooms and not just in kura and kohanga.
Shane Jones has slammed the latest language strategy put forward by Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples as backward-looking and ridiculous.
Dr Sharples wants to give responsibility for te reo Maori to iwi and hapu, starting with creating an iwi-driven electoral college to appoint the boards of Maori broadcast funding agency Te Mangai Pahi and the Maori language commission, Te Taura Whiri i Te Reo Maori.
“The language belongs to hapu and iwi and they've got to take ownership of it,” he says.
But Mr Jones says the salvation of the language does not lie with fresh governance arrangements between hapus and iwi.
“The Maori language, if it is to survive, has to be alive at the kitchen table as well as at the marae,” he says.
“Pita Sharples believes in this cultural filigree of inviting the iwi, which are largely a government construct, to save the language. That’s ridiculous.”
He says the Crown needs to continue supporting te reo through new programmes and interventions that suit the lifestyles of Maoridom’s urbanised population.
“The Maori language has a challenge in that it hasn’t become fully normalised across the population,” Mr Jones says.
“I’m a great supporter of bringing it further and further into the education system and I don’t see why every child in New Zealand is not required to develop a certain level of awareness or facility in the Maori language. It should be a core part of a modern New Zealand education curriculum.”
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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