Community Radio
Piecing Together Maori, Word by Word “Ahakoa kei whea, Ahakoa a-whea, Ahakoa pe-whea, Ka-rero Ma-ori!”
Today are 21 Iwi (tribal) radio stations in New Zealand broadcasting in the Ma-ori language to over 130,000 speakers (24 percent of the Ma-ori population).
Erin McArdle
T
he beautiful thing about language is that it has the power to define the world around us. By protecting the past and looking towards the future, it embodies exactly what it is we are all about. It connects people, bringing them closer to their lands, traditions, and to each other. As Joseph Te Rito, the chairperson of Radio Kahungunu based in Hastings, New Zealand, states, “Should a person’s language become endangered, so does the culture of that people become endangered.” In the past few centuries, a cultural epidemic has taken hold in New Zealand leaving only 9 percent of the Ma-ori population fluent in their native tongue. This epidemic threatens to destroy their language along with their valued
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traditions. However, New Zealand has been working to reverse the effects of colonization and revive the valuable Ma-ori culture and language. These revitalization efforts have primarily come about through classroom teachings, increased emphasis on Ma-ori language use in the homes, and the support of electronic media. A 1995 survey found that nearly 60 percent of Ma-ori adults spoke a certain amount of Ma-ori, while 83 percent of the overall population admitted that they had low fluency or simply did not speak it at all. English is by far the main language used by adults, while the Ma-ori language was most commonly heard on the marae (ceremonial space) in a Ma-ori community. Now, after close to four decades of efforts toward language revitalization, individuals over the age of 55 as well as those under the age of 15 are more likely to
Slide courtesy of Wena Tait
Slide courtesy of Wena Tait
— Te Ma ngai Pa ho Ma ori Broadcasting Funding Agency (“Ma ori language — everyday, everyway, everywhere”)