Interesting Read - Maori Language Comes Back


Children in New Zealand enjoy learning an ancient Maori language

By Agence France-Presse, adapted by Newsela staff
Text Level 3
10/02/2018
Word Count 459

 Image 1. People walk past Maori language signs in Wellington, New Zealand, on September 13, 2018. Photo by: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images


Arts

Children in New Zealand enjoy learning an ancient Maori language

By Agence France-Presse, adapted by Newsela staff
Text Level 3
10/02/2018
Word Count 459
Image 1. People walk past Maori language signs in Wellington, New Zealand, on September 13, 2018. Photo by: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images
Image 1. People walk past Maori language signs in Wellington, New Zealand, on September 13, 2018. Photo by: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images
Students gather under the carved wooden roof of a meeting house. They live in New Zealand. It is an island country near Australia. The students are watching a play at a high school. The school is in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.
The play is performed in a language called te reo Maori. It is the language of New Zealand's indigenous Maori people. Indigenous people are the first group of people to live in a particular area.
Eds Eramiha is an actor in the play. He says it would have been hard to imagine this scene just 20 years ago. Back then, te reo Maori was seen as a dying language. Many people thought it was not worth teaching.
Image 2. Maori warriors perform a Haka, meaning a dance of welcome, in 2012. The ceremony is an ancient Maori tradition used to determine if visitors came in peace or not. Photo from U.S. Department of Defense [Click to expand]
Image 2. Maori warriors perform a Haka, meaning a dance of welcome, in 2012. The ceremony is an ancient Maori tradition used to determine if visitors came in peace or not. Photo from U.S. Department of Defense [Click to expand]

"Attitudes have changed," he said.

Language Was Banned In Schools

Te reo Maori was not allowed in schools for much of the 1900s. At the same time, many Maori living in the countryside were moving into the cities. When they moved to the cities they had to speak English. That meant that by the 1980s, the Maori language was in trouble. Only one in five indigenous New Zealanders could speak it.
Now things have changed. The language is more popular among New Zealanders of all kinds. More people are taking pride in their nation's indigenous culture.
Schools are now teaching te reo Maori. Bands, poets and rappers now perform using the language.
New Zealanders use te reo Maori words even when speaking English. For example, "kai" means food. "Ka pai" means congratulations. "Whanau" means family.

Teacher Loves Sharing The Language

Charles Royal is a Maori teacher and storyteller. He is excited about having more people speak te reo.
There have never been so many te reo speakers, Royal said.
Royal said that New Zealanders had a mistaken idea. They thought European history was more important than New Zealand history. That's why people stopped speaking te reo Maori, he said. Now people are learning to love New Zealand history again.
Map: mapchart.net/Newsela staff.
Map: mapchart.net/Newsela staff.

Angela Fieldes is a teacher. She teaches at a child care center. She teaches toddlers to speak te reo Maori.
"They pick it up really, really quickly," she said. In her class, the children performed a "waiata," or song. The song teaches the Maori words for colors and numbers.
The actor Eds Eramiha is excited for the language's future.
"It's a treasure for us to be able to pass it on and a great gift to see other people wanting to learn it. It's amazing," he said.

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 6, 2019 at 3:36 AM

    Very proud of New Zealand for this! It is great to see the language used more and more every time we go back for a holiday.

    ReplyDelete

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