February 20, 2014
Pakeha needed in reo strategy
The last consultation hui on the Government’s proposed new Maori language strategy is in Auckland today, and it will hear a challenge to embrace non-Maori learning te reo.
The plan devised by Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples is for control over language revitalisation efforts to be passed to iwi, and for there to be more emphasis on regional dialects.
But Susan Warren from education trust Comet Auckland says there is nothing in the strategy about non-Maori speakers.
She says international experience shows a critical mass of people need to speak a heritage language if it is to survive.
Ms Warren says with the number of people learning te reo declining, the language will die unless a fresh effort is made soon.
"What that requires is all of us stepping up and saying ok, I’m a citizen of Aotearoa, I have a responsibility to support our national language by making the effort to learn it, and what we want to see is the strategy including both a challenge and a call for all New Zealanders to speak their language, and also some resourcing to make that possible," she says.
Susan Warren says the most effective step would be to make te reo Maori a core subject at primary school level when children are most open to learning languages.
The consultation hui is at Te Puea Marae in Mangere, starting at 10am.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH SUE WARREN CLICK ON THE LINK
http://www.waateanews.com/play_podcast?podlink=MTU1NjA=
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