June 01, 2016
Jackson to bring awhitanga to reo lessons
A leading member of the National Urban Maori Authority says the role of its representative on the new Maori language body Te Maataawai is to make the reo accessible to Maori in the city, not to shame them for not speaking it.
New Zealand First MP Pita Paraone, a former chief executive of the Maori Language Commission, has accused the authority of lack of transparency in selecting Willie Jackson as its representative.
He says Te Matawai needs language experts, not people who can work the system.
But John Tamihere says parliament gave NUMA the right to pick who it wanted, and it chose someone who could speak for the nine out of 10 Maori struggling with te reo.
"My world is being defined by 10 percent who got through the eye of the needle and now they’re the flash Harrys who have the matatau te reo no tikanga, they think they now make the rules and they make it tougher for everyone else to get through the eye of the needle.".
"Mr Jackson will build bridges into our communities to lift accessibility to the reo in a way where it’s done under awhitanga and manaakitanga rather than with a patu that some of these people from Panekiretanga and all those mongooses running around make out," he says.
Mr Tamihere says the Maori language community needs to take a good hard look at itself for its failure to increase use of te reo Maori over the past 20 years.
A leading member of the National Urban Maori Authority says the role of its representative on the new Maori language body Te Maataawai is to make the reo accessible to Maori in the city, not to shame them for not speaking it.
New Zealand First MP Pita Paraone, a former chief executive of the Maori Language Commission, has accused the authority of lack of transparency in selecting Willie Jackson as its representative.
He says Te Matawai needs language experts, not people who can work the system.
But John Tamihere says parliament gave NUMA the right to pick who it wanted, and it chose someone who could speak for the nine out of 10 Maori struggling with te reo.
"My world is being defined by 10 percent who got through the eye of the needle and now they’re the flash Harrys who have the matatau te reo no tikanga, they think they now make the rules and they make it tougher for everyone else to get through the eye of the needle.".
"Mr Jackson will build bridges into our communities to lift accessibility to the reo in a way where it’s done under awhitanga and manaakitanga rather than with a patu that some of these people from Panekiretanga and all those mongooses running around make out," he says.
Mr Tamihere says the Maori language community needs to take a good hard look at itself for its failure to increase use of te reo Maori over the past 20 years.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com