September 15, 2022
Pakeha support for Māori language effort critical
Māori Language Commission boss Ngahiwi Apanui says most of the 30-thousand signatures on the historic 1972 Maori language petition, were from pakeha, not Māori.
Events were held at Parliament and the National Library yesterday to mark the 50th anniversary of the petition, which asked for te reo Maori to be an option in all schools.
“You know it doesn’t surprise me the majority of people that signed that petition were pakeha and I keep saying to my relations not every pakeha is evil and like any other people are capable of great good and I think the petition is an example of that,” he says.
Mr Apanui says it took two years for activists like Hana Te Hemara-Jackson, Ngā Tamatoa and the Te Reo Māori Society to gather the petition’s 33,000 signatures – and that was the spark that saved the language.