July 10, 2016
Dewes throwing pakeha yoke off reo
Te Arawa’s appointee to Te Matawai says the new Maori language body is a chance to take responsibility for Maori language revitalisation away from the crown.
Cathy Dewes was a member of Te Paepae Motuhake, the independent panel that proposed a new structure for overseeing Maori language efforts.
She has been part of the struggle for te reo Maori since her teens when she supported the petition to make secondary schools offer Maori as a subject.
"My view has always been that we have to throw off the yoke of Pakeha oppression that we have to move out of this oppressed state that we are currently in. I have been in this business 47 years. It was worse then but it still exists now, where Pakeha culture and decision makers have all the power and we have none or very little," she says.
Cathy Dewes says initiatives like kohange reo, kura kaupapa, and whare wananga are hugely significant because they we achieved despite huge resistance.
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