A former chair of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo says the increase in te reo Māori speakers is the result of generations of revitalisation and normalisation efforts.
Recent Census 2023 data shows the number of reo Māori speakers has risen 15 percent from 185,955 speakers in 2018 to 213,849.
Haami Piripi, who was chair of Te Taura Whiri from 1995 to 2002, says te reo Māori is now a bona fide spoken language, embraced by people both here and abroad.
He says this progress has taken generations to achieve.
“I look back to the beginning of the Kohanga Reo. It was the Māori community that started Kohanga Reo. Same as kura kaupapa, same as whare wānanga. We’re much more geared up and able to initiate things in a way that we weren’t before,” Mr Piripi.
Haami Piripi says the next challenge is to get 50,000 fluent first language reo speakers to ensure the language survives.
