March 06, 2024
Tauranga iwi challenges silencing of te reo Māori
Ngāi Te Rangi Iwi Settlement Trust chair Charlie Tāwhiao says his iwi’s urgent claim to the Waitangi Tribunal is a chance to hold the coalition Government to account for disregarding its Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations.
The claim, WAI 3308, says returning public sector agencies to their English names breaches article 2 by failing to actively protect the taonga of te reo Māori.
Mr Tāwhiao says the claim is on behalf of the tamariki mokopuna who have been raised in a world where using te reo Māori is a right.
“I mean, we don’t need permission to speak Māori. What we do need, though, is to be sure that our official state apparatus is capable of responding to us in te reo Māori should we need to, and the recent policies of this Government are saying otherwise – that there is no need for te reo Māori to feature and public discourse, in public life at all,” he says.
A hearing date yet to be set.