TE TIROHANGA I TE KOREROTANGA 0 TE REO RAN GA TIRA I ROTO I NGA KAINGA MAORI ME NGA ROHE Survey of Language Use in Maori Households and Communities
PANUI WHAKAMOHIO 2 '' INFORMATION BULLETIN \ 7
ISSN 0113-3063
Loca li ties in which ten or more households were visited
e Two thirds or more of adults were fluent speakers of Maori
+ Less than two thirds of adults were fluent speakers of Maori
HEPURONGORONGO WHAKAMOHIO MA NGA KAIURU KI TE TORONGA TUATAHI, 1973-1978 A report to Participants in the Initial Investigation, 1973-1978 THE MAORI LANGUAGE FROM HEREKINO TO PAWARENGA
This report i s a summary of the results of the linguistic survey c arried out in Januar y 1976 in Whangape and Manukau, and a year earlie r in Pawarenga. The pur pose of the s u r v ey was to try to find out where and how widely Ma ori wa s still spoken, and what c ould be done to help families a nd communities to hol d on to the Ma ori language in t h e fac e of so much competition from Englis h. Several other communities in the Mangonui and Hokia nga Counties were incl uded in the s urvey, and the re~ults of the work the re have been repor ed o n in other bulletin$ i n this series: Te Hapua , Te Kao and Ng a taki (No. 25), Pa nguru and Rangi Poin t ( No . 28), Kaitaia and neighbour i ng communit i es (N o . 115), and Eas tern Hokianga (No . 125). A n u mber o f mo r e g e neral r e ports which include info rmation from all these di str icts are al s o available from NZCE R, and others are in prepa r a tion.
Keri Keri The i ntervie ws in Pawarenga were cond u c ted by Awa V V Hudso~ (N g ati Whatua, Te Rarawa and Te AuPouri), Erima V He n a r e (N gapuhi, Te Aupouri and Ngati Kahungunu), vV Ripeka Koopu (Te Whanau- a - Apa nui) and Wi ll iam Martin V V ( Ngati Manawa and Te Aupouri). The inte viewers in * • the other communities were Tawini Rangiha u (Tuh oe), Kaikohee Map showing the Towns and V Ka hu Waititi ( Ngapuhi and Te Whanau- a - APanui), Candice V Localities in Northwest Northland Scrims haw (Ngati Kahungunu), Raiha Smith (Ngati Visited during the Census of V • Ka hungunu) a nd Peter and Iriaka Wen s or (Ngapuhi). The Language Use. ® fieldwork was supervised by Peter RanbY. V Altogether 18 hous eholds were vis ited in these areas ; 5 in Herekino and Manukau (with 27 people, 25 V of Maori descent), 5 in Whangape (21 people, all Maori), and 8 in Pawarenga (39 people, all Maori). Percentage of fluent speakers of Maori @ More than 85'\, .... Less than 60% This wa s a bout a third of the Maori population in among persons aged 25 and over in the households visited. Pawarenga at the time, and a quarter in the other * 76°'0 to 85°'0 V Fewer than 7 households di s tricts. All the interv iews in Pawarenga and one in visited Whangape were in Maori; the rest were in English. e 60°10 to 75% I
KNOWLEDGE OF SPOKEN f1AORI IN HEREKINO, NANAKAU IJHANGAPE ANO PAIJARENGA ( 1976) Results of the Linguistic Survey
f1anukau ct I,..,, i A ff i 1 i at ion Herekino The people we visited in Herekino and Manukau No ~ No % No % named a variety of iwi to which they or their children Fluent: Speakers belonged, although about half belonged to either Ngai Tupato (which is linked with Ngapuhi and Te Rarawa) or 45 yrs c'5i over 3 60 7 100 9 100 Ngati Whatua; 4 people were said to belong to Ngapuhi, 25 to 44 yrs 0 0 2 40 a nd 3 to Te Rarawa. Almost everyone in the households 15 to 24 yrs 0 0 1 so visited in Whangape belonged to Te Rarawa, and four 2 to 14 yrs 0 0 5 24 out of five of the people included in the Pawarenga Overall 3 11 7 33 17 46 survey gave Te Aopouri and/or Te Ur i-o-Tai a s their iwi (the rest belonged either to Ng apuhi or Ngst i Kahu). Half the household heads we interviewed in Understsnd Eesily Herekino and Manukau had lived in the dis trict since childhood, compared with three-quarters of those in 45 yrs c'5i over 4 80 7 I 100 9 100 Pawarenga and about two-thirds in Whangape. 25 to 44 yrs 1 JJ 0 3 75 15 to 24 yrs 0 2 so 2 100 2 to 14 yrs 0 5 63 11 55 Ability to Speak and Understand /"1aori
Ove rall 5 19 14 66 25 71 The table on page 2 s hows how much Maori was known by people of various ages in the househ olds we . Limit:ed Underst:snding v isited in these communities. In Hereki no and Manukau, all the fluent speakers of Maori were over 45 yrs 15c over 1 20 0 0 45 when the survey took place, and two out of three 25 to 44 yrs 0 1 so 0 younger adults and children had little or no knowledge 15 to 24. yrs 1 J.J 1 25 0 of the language at that time. In Pawarenga, however, 2 to 14 yrs 6 40 1 13 8 40 there were fluent speakers of Maori in all age groups, Overall 8 JO 3 14 8 23 although children under 15 were more likely to be able j to understand Maori than to speak it as their first 1 language. The situation in Whangape was somewhere in No Knoi..•led'1e between, with most people knowing a little Maori, but few fluent speakers in the under-45 age groups. 45 yrs 15c over 0 0 0 25 to 44 yrs 2 67 1 so 1 25 15 to 24 yrs 2 67 1 2.5 0 Eight of the nine household heads we interviewed 2 to 14 yrs 9 60 2 25 1 s in Pawarenga had Maori as their first language, and three of them had learned to· read and write in Maori Overall 13 so 4 19 2 6 before they were able to read and write in English. Four of the five household heads in Whangape also had (Numbers end percentages refer to members of households visited; percentages have been rounded to nearest whole number). ------=--======3 2 Maori as their first language (one had learned English who also spoke in English on the marae; however seven also when very young), but six of the seven of the eight we spoke to in Pawarenga used only Maori interviewed in Manukau and Herekino were native in whaikorero, and three others in Whangape said they speakers of English, end everyone in these three used Maori only (two) or a mixture of Maori and districts had first learned to read and write in English. Again, they said that mo st of the kaumatua English. of their district would use Maori onlY.
Similarly, Maori was used by adults more often Use of the /'1aori Language in the Household than English in many other situations outside the home in Whangape and Pawarenga. These included religious English was the main language used when all services in church (including sermon), prayers for members of the family were together in households opening and closing meetings, special prayers for the where there were still children of school age or sick, as well as conversations with neighbors. In younger, except in Pawarenga, where two of the eight Whangape English was more likely to be used in families with dependent children used Maori most of addition to Maori in these situations ; most people in the time, and three used Maori and English about Pewarenga said Maori was the main or only language equally. In all communities, however, visitors were they would normally use for such purposes. more likely to be spoken with in Maori than were children in the family, and several parents who spoke Maori to their children at least once in a while ------mentioned that the children preferred to answer in This is .1 purely im.1ginuy map of the district co,·ered by this ------English. All the home s we visited in Whangape and report, on which the households included in the survey have' ------bttn located to show the Maori l.1ngu.1ge resources of the Pawarenga, however, had at least one adult fluent in aru, ------Maori, but this was the case in only two of the five in Manukau and Herekino. (This is illustrated in the diagram on page 5.)
Naori Language in the Community :--:,-:,-:,-C-C-C-:::?'?-: - :,-:S-:c- .r-...... :~-/
As might be expected, Manukau and Herekino were the places where English was used most of the time in all situations in the community; Maori people are in a ...______. __ ~-: IIIL__JJW:=------~ minority in these two districts, and few of the people we interviewed KnowlrJge of :\!Jori regarded themselves as fluent Maori among Household Heads speakers. Three of the five adults we interviewed • Buth flu,·nt ~f"·,1h·r~ there who spoke on the marae said they used English A On,• tlut'nt spt:Jkcr even in whaikorero, as their Maori was not good 'v Som..: und..:rstanJin~ enough. However, these people also said that their 0 Litt I..: ur no J..nu\\'lt'1.1~,· kaumatua would use only Maori on. such occasions. There were two people in Whangape and one in Pawarenga HEREKINO TO PAWARENGA
4 5 if they were to speak Maori to anyone they came Only one of the seven adults we interviewed in across, adult or child, at the time of our survey--the Manukau and Herekino had been punished for speaking odds would have been 2 to 1 in their favour with Maori at school, although two others said that Maori adults, and Just a little less than e ven with had n ot been encouraged at school; one mentioned a children. In Wh angape, the chances of adults being rule against speaking Maori in the playground. Two able to use Maori in a chance meeting would have been others had found that they were allowed to use Maori just a little less than in Pawarenge, but only 1 in 5 at school. However four of the five people we spoke between an adult a nd a child. In Manukau and Whangape said they had been punished, while one to in the odds were 4 to 1 against Maori among experience . One of those in Herekino, had the opposite adults, and 50 to 1 against a s uccessful chance Pawarenga also reported an accepting attitude am o ng conversation between an adult and a child. One person her former teachers, but the other seven said that we interviewed in Herekino summed the situation there they ( t hree) or their classmates (four) had met the UP by saying "not many people here can speak Maori--if same fate a s most of their Whangape counterparts. they do, the conversation always finishes in English". One of the Whangape people said that "we were .. Other communities very like Pawarenga among those punished severely for speaking Maori, and that's the we visited in the North, as far as knowledge and use reason why none of us can speak Maori". What this of Maori were concerned, were Waim~, Te Hapua, Motatau really meant was that memor ies of what happened to and Te Tii. Awanui, Waitangi, Pupuke and Ohaeawai them a t school discouraged quite a number of people closest in these respects to Whangape, while from bringing their own children up to be Maori were Herekino and Manukau were more like Kaeo, Kawakawa and speakers. Northland seems to have been the part of linguistically than most country districts. New Zea land worst affected by a negative attitude to Whangarei the Ma ori language on the part of teachers (although, of course, even in the early days, some teachers To,..,ards the Noori Lemguage valued the language and did not think that their Attitudes pupils had to be forced to stop speaking Maori in the people interviewed in Pawarenga preferred to school grounds so they could learn English). Most read and write Maori rather tha n English; the Elsewhere, there was a much more rapid change in speak, was one person who like d both languages teachers' attitudes to Maori (from disapproval to only exception well. In the other places, the attitude to tolerance and encouragement) after about 1930 than in equally . . depended partly on the person's particular the North, where negative attitudes seem still to have Maori Those who could not speak Maori fluently been quite widespread even in the 1940s and 50s. (The experiences. found it easiest to use English, but several school experiences of Maori-speakers in various parts naturally them told us that they wi shed they could speak of Northland are set out and discussed in a paper, of Maori, so that they could use it instead of English. "Maori Perceptions of School Experience and Other Influences on the Maintenance of the Maori Language in Another person had spoken only Maori until she Northland" by Nena Benton, available from Te Wahanga went to school . There, she said, she had been Maori, NZCER. ) "threatened" for speaking ~aori, and "gave it up". Maori again for a while when she moved to It was only in Pawarenga that a Maori-speaker She spoke her husband's birthplace, but was "laughed at by the would have had a reasonable chance of being understood
7 6 I ·-· Knowledge of Maori Language by Age Groups in Selected Areas. at the Time of the Linguistic Census locals", so never spoke Maori again". However, she 100 was hoping her daughter would study Maori at college. 90 Several other p ople told us how their own parents, 80 who were Maori-speake rs, had not used Maori with them 18 70 at home (pres um a bly b ecause t hey thought Maor i might get in the way o f schooling) 60 . At least one o f thes e I 50 I had since become e f l uent speaker, but the others I I 40 I seemed to feel t hat it was t oo late now for t h em t o -"' I "''-' II learn. 30 37 c,_ I
The Purpose of This Report This report has been prepared for the people who participated in the original survey and who provided the information on which it is based. It is hoped that it will encourage people to compare the situation now with that at the time covered by the report, and that this information will provide a basis for discussion and debate about what action, if any, each community might take to ensure that the Maori language is at least as important in the twenty first century as it was in the 1970s.
Further Information One copy of this report is provided free to each person interviewed during the linguistic census in the area concerned, and to local schools, Maori Language Boards, and Maori Committees. Further information about the linguistic survey, and lists of publications, may be obtained from the Maori Unit, New Zealand Council for Educational Research, P.O. Box 3237, Wellington.
Nga Mihi/Special Thanks Our first thanks must go to the 6,500 Maori families who entrusted us with the information presented in this series of reports. Fieldwork for the survey was funded substantially by contributions from the Lottery Board of Control, Fletcher Holdings Limited, the Maori Purposes Fund, and the Maori Education Foundation. The coding and analysis of the data was supported initially by a grant from Fletcher Holdings Limited, and further financial assistance for these purposes has been provided by Mobil Oil N.Z. Limited, the Post Primary Teachers Association, the New Zealand Educational Institute and the Raukawa Trustees. The writing of these reports was made possible by the generosity of the J.R. McKenzie Trust.