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Recent Efforts to maintain the Maori language by Ngati Kahungunu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

Joseph Selwyn Te Rito
Joseph Selwyn Te Rito*
Affiliation:
EIT Hawke's Bay, NEW ZEALAND
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Abstract

A survey of the Maori Language in the 1970's indicated that only 18% of the Maori population of New Zealand were fluent speakers of the language. A survey in 1995 indicated that this had dropped to only 8%! The Ngati Kahungunu, like other tribes have long realized the impact of the onslaught of the English language. As with other indigenous and minority cultures throughout the world, they realize the urgency of the problem of potential death of their language. With the knowledge that the language has such a pivotal part to play in the total culture of any people, Ngati Kahungunu have adopted a “just do it” approach to language revitalisation strategies. This paper looks at some of the initiatives recently and presently carried out by Ngati Kahungunu to save its language from extinction. The paper also particularly highlights the methodology of “rumaki” or total immersion teaching of all subjects in the Maori language.

Type
Part II. Contemporary Perspectives
Information
South Pacific Journal of Psychology , Volume 10 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Asia-Pacific Language Research , 1999 , pp. 47 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © University of Papua New Guinea and the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Territory University, Australia 1999

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References

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