March 16, 2023
Te Mātāwai lacks putea for mission
Te Reo Māori revitalisation body Te Mātāwai has put its case to the Māori Affairs Select Committee for a large enough pūtea to do the job it’s been set.
Co-chair Bernie O’Donnell says on the crown side there are millions of dollars going into the language, not only through Te Taura Whiri but through mainstream departments like Education and Health.
Te Mātāwai has just $14 million to run its back office and regional structure as well as invest in iwi and grassroots Māori language revival.
He says it has to turn down about 300 proposals a year because it doesn’t have the resources.
“The education space is always about how do we train our teachers, how do we start to build the language hubs outside the school gates, that’s the education focus which is actually what we are supposed to do but because we don’t have the resource, either pūtea-wise or people-wise, we just can’t keep up with the ever-changing state of affairs that is determined by the crown,” Mr O’Donnell says.
He says Te Mātāwai should be able to take part in planning for initiatives which could affect te reo Māori, such as the new-shelved merger between Radio New Zealand and TVNZ