“Te reo Māori mustn’t be treated as a ‘special interest’. It’s essential to education in Aotearoa,” writes teacher Te Aumoana Kingi. (Photo supplied)
Sidelining te reo Māori in early “mainstream” learning only teaches our kids they’re second best, writes Te Aumoana Kingi, a teacher in a Māori medium unit.
I’m supposed to be writing notes for my presentation assignment. But I can’t think. An article has just popped up on my phone — one of many I’ve been seeing about recent changes to remove language, culture, and mātauranga from our education system — and I can’t ignore it.
I’m not the mouthpiece of all kaiako Māori, nor for my iwi, hapū, or hāpori (community). And I’m not the mouthpiece for my school either. I’m just here to deliver a message to our school leaders:
E tū mō ngā mokopuna te take. (Stand up for the sake of our descendants.)
I’m a third language learner on a reclamation journey. I knew how to speak Japanese before I could speak my reo. Today I teach in a Māori medium unit that has existed for nearly 10 years, a puna reo for both mokopuna Māori and mokopuna Tīriti.
Before starting with the unit, I learned to teach solely in “mainstream” education. Not by choice. Our teacher education courses didn’t offer Māori medium education in my city. Yet, I’ve done my best to weave all my learning and knowledge from wānanga, whānau, and hāpori into my classroom.
Reclaiming and teaching reo has been an uphill battle from the beginning. But because of my reo, I’ve deepened my connection with my iwi, hāpori, ākonga (students), and their whānau.
For both Māori and non-Māori tamariki, the reo has strengthened their cultural identity. Tamariki thrive on seeing their language visible, valued and woven into the everyday life of their school.
Leading Māori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith reminds us that colonial education has only one purpose — to deny Indigenous peoples their languages, knowledge and culture. So when we revitalise te reo, we are revitalising our ways of thinking, being, and knowing. Te reo Māori mustn’t be treated as a “special interest”. It’s essential to education in Aotearoa.
Te reo is a taonga recognised by law. Under Te Tīriti o Waitangi, we have the right and responsibility to protect our language. We do so by exercising our waha to use te reo Māori as much as we can for the benefit of our ākonga. We do this because, as educational philosopher Paulo Freire teaches, education is never neutral. It either dominates or liberates. Choosing to diminish te reo Māori in our schools is choosing to dominate and silence.
Tamariki at the Māori medium unit where Te Aumoana teaches. (Photo supplied)
Current changes will reduce resources, and limit opportunities for engagement in reo at our schools. This continues to put pressure on kaiako and ākonga, teachers and students, to drop their language and culture at the school gate for “efficiency” and “core curriculum” priorities. The emotional toll on tamariki Māori when their language is absent from core learning, or reduced to tokenism, is devastating. It tells them their identity is secondary.
Ehara tēnā i te whakaaro Māori. Ehara tēnā i te mea pai ki ahau. (That’s not a Māori philosophy. I’m not ok with that.)
Research shows that culturally-responsive education is directly linked to engagement and success for Māori learners. Strip those elements away, and disengagement follows.
I’ve seen this in my akomanga.
“Hākui, hei aha te reo Māori!” (What’s the point of te reo Māori?)
“Hākui, can you just speak English to us? Everybody else does.”
“Hākui, why do I have to do my pepeha? No other classes are doing it.”
Protecting te reo Māori shouldn’t be a political act. But as Huia Jahnke, a professor of Māori and Indigenous education, points out, the word “mainstream” itself is coded, a deliberate way to align the idea of what’s “normal” with Western European tradition.
But true leadership is choosing not to align with one dominant view. It takes mana to stand up against the status quo and act with courage and foresight, irrespective of the politics of the day. It takes educational leadership and moral integrity.
Actions that limit or discourage reo use are a window to our shameful past. They should not be our inherited future. When the political wind changes and those in the seats of power do too, we must persist in guarding our taonga. Te reo is the lifeblood of our people, not an optional extra.
Languages don’t just die — they are either nurtured or neglected. And language policy is never neutral. Every decision either moves us toward equity or away from it. When we uplift te reo Māori, we uplift the cultural intelligence of our nation.
Mō ngā mokopuna te take. Ake ake ake.
Outdoor learning at Te Pā Harakeke. (Photo supplied)
Te Aumoana Kingi (Kāi Tahu, Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Rangitāne, Ngāti Rārua) is a senior lead in a bilingual education unit and a cultural advisor for counsellors and therapists across Aotearoa. She has a Master of Teaching and Learning and is currently studying for a postgraduate diploma in education, endorsed in Māori Education. As a new māmā, she is guided in her mahi by the Kāi Tahu whakataukī: “Mō tātou, ā, mō kā uri ā muri ake nei.”
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When I was at school French was a compulsory subject for my secondary education. Every body approved. Very strange that a national language does not get the same credit. Maybe it’s racism!!