Mana reo: The learning worlds of endangered language learners – te reo Māori A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Elisa Duder December 2016 Acknowledgements It is regrettable that a doctoral thesis only has one name on the cover, as in reality it represents thousands of collective hours. There are four people who deserve their name alongside mine on the cover: Tessa Duder, John Duder, Mukai Hura and Mukai Duder Hura. I have been fortunate to have Tania Ka’ai and Larissa Warhol as my supervisors: two strong, articulate and forthright women. The final, but no less important, group to thank are my colleagues Phillip Coombs, Jamie Cowell, Erana Foster, Sandy Hata, Julia Hallas, Jason King, Hēmi Kelly, William Keung, Ena Manuireva, Jen Martin, Hinematau McNeil, Helena Mill, Antony Nobbs, John Patolo, John Prince and Maree Sheehan. I acknowledge the privilege of receiving a Vice Chancellor’s Doctoral Scholarship from 2012 to 2015. Approval for the ethics application (13/278) for this was given on the 23 October 2013. Ki ngā mate kua whakawhetūria i te wā i whakarerehia ai tēnei rangahau, e tika ana kia mihia, kia poroporoakitia e au. Taiaroa Iris David Mona Wendy Jocelyn Rau Elliot ii Abstract Endangered languages create learning and social contexts that are different from learning dominant majority languages. As a field with its roots in the Anglo-American tradition there is huge scope for SLA to be more inclusive of language and social contexts where linguistic and cultural pluralism is a given, not a deviation. This thesis contributes to a wider understanding in the combination of theoretical and contextual diversity and linguistic heritage in endangered language acquisition (ELA). To explore this idea in context this study focuses on second language (L2) learners and new speakers of Māori to provide a portrait of an under-acknowledged group and understand their role in the language’s future at a critical point in the vitality of te reo Māori. This poses question around the role of L2 learners in endangered language revitalisation. How do L2 learners locate themselves in the context of language revitalisation? What are L2 learners’ perceptions of the community and the individual in the revitalisation of te reo Māori? What role does the Māori language have Māori life and has this changed over the last 40 years of the Māori language movement? What terminology do L2 learners describe themselves? What factors of L2 learning have helped language development the most? And finally, what have been some of the struggles of L2 learning of Māori? As a study of Māori language speakers it is grounded methodologically in a framework that views and shapes all participants in Māori worlds, including the Pākehā researcher. In negotiating this space and drawing on the wisdom and experience of other Pākehā researchers, the thesis hopes to be part of an existing intellectual narrative around theoretical and practical aspects of Pākehā identity in and engagement with Māori worlds. This study draws on four decades of experience in Māori language revitalisation through its participants, who reveal Māori language learning as a site of multi-level hegemonic resistance, mediated access to the language and disruption to traditional roles. The study highlights the possible repercussions in restricting Māori language learning to ‘mainstream’ tertiary institutions as it becomes increasingly vulnerable to prevailing neoliberal policies and hegemonic practices. However, the most important and revelatory feature of the participants’ stories and the literature is that we can recast the earliest theoretical and philosophical endeavours of Māori language revitalisation in Kōhanga Reo and Te Ātaarangi as pivotal to its success. And equally, to celebrate Māori language communities’ extraordinary efforts since the 1970s to contribute towards a more sophisticated understanding of the social conditions of eL2 (L2 learners of endangered languages) as they take their ancestral languages into the 21st century. iii Attestation of authorship I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person (except where explicitly defined in the acknowledgements), nor material which to a substantial extent has been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other institution of higher learning. iv Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. ii Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. iii Attestation of authorship....................................................................................................................... iv Contents .................................................................................................................................................. v Preface .................................................................................................................................................. xi Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... xii Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ xiii Attestation of authorship......................................................................................................................xiv Contents .................................................................................................................................................. v List of tables ........................................................................................................................................ x List of images ...................................................................................................................................... x List of figures ....................................................................................................................................... x Preface ................................................................................................................................................... xi Orthographic conventions ................................................................................................................. xi Clarification of terms ......................................................................................................................... xi Personal statement ............................................................................................................................ xi Chapter 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 The research’s niche ........................................................................................................................... 2 Purpose and aims ................................................................................................................................ 5 Methodologies and methods .............................................................................................................. 6 Researcher position: inside and out ................................................................................................... 6 Significance and justification .............................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 2: Towards a ‘social turn’? Language endangerment, sociolinguistics and te reo Maori ......... 9 Applied linguistics and endangered languages ................................................................................... 9 Endangered language terminology ............................................................................................... 10 Critical reflection on the study of endangered languages ................................................................ 11 Endangerment as a field of academic study ................................................................................. 11 v Towards a social turn in endangered language and language revitalisation discourse ................... 13 The sociohistorical conditions of te reo Māori ................................................................................. 18 Languages in New Zealand ............................................................................................................ 18 Social processes impact on te reo Māori ...................................................................................... 19 Renaissance and revolution: New Zealand in the 1980s .......................................................... 20 1990s and the rise of Neoliberalism ......................................................................................... 23 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 3. Te reo Māori language revitalisation: power, ideology and practice in transition ............ 28 Community roots: challenge and struggle .......................................................................................