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An AUT doctoral candidate is studying the loss of language at the individual hapu level … and he says it will be a long road back.
Hohepa Maclean is trying to identify speakers within his Patukoraha hapu of Ngati Kahu and measure the quality of their reo.
The hapu was one of those caught up in the recent occupation of Kaitaia Airport.
Mr McLean, a Maori language teacher at Te Wananga o Aotearoa, estimates only about 5 percent of hapu members are fluent.
He hopes to identify ways to encourage hapu members to grasp on and learn te reo.
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