Indigenous Politician Takes a Stand for Māori Language

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Una publicación compartida por Aotearoa Greens Global (@nzgreensglobal)

A heated debate is taking place in New Zealand. A bill aims to elevate English as the nation’s official language. This initiative sparked criticism from Indigenous activists and politicians, given English is already the most common language spoken around the country. Meanwhile, the official status held by te reo Māori and New Zealand Sign Language came only after long fights for recognition and accessibility. Making English official, then, can look like a step backward—an appeal to those who feel uneasy about the growing visibility of the Māori language.

This action prompted Indigenous MP Tamatha Paul to take a stand in parliament, giving a passionate speech about the subject. “Let me tell you why te reo Māori has a protected language status because it was beaten out of Māori systematically,” Paul said. “We had to march our arses to parliament, demanding that the Indigenous first language of this country be recognized and not beaten out of the mouth of its native speakers.”

Paul noted that the ironic thing about the bill is that English isn’t even an official language in England nor in neighboring Australia, given it has always functioned as the undisputed de facto language in both places. “Even they know that. It’s just stupid.” The MP also went so far as to call English a “bastard language” that draws from Greek, Old Norse, and Latin. She argued that conservative politicians are only pushing to turn it into an official language in response to how widely society has embraced the Indigenous name for New Zealand, Aotearoa.

The MP also brought up the case for the Welsh language, largely protected and spotlighted by its government. “They’ve got their beautiful Indigenous language, Cymraeg, everywhere before English and, guess what? The world didn’t fall over and the world didn’t end. People still knew where they were going. In fact, people saw and thought, ‘Wow. We’re in a country that values their Indigenous language and identity unlike our snowflake government that cannot handle te reo Maori.’ ”

Sharon Harvey, an associate professor specializing in educational linguistics at the Auckland University of Technology told The Guardian, “Already, this government had proven to be quite strong on being proponents of English first, or English only, in some spaces. I wonder if we have this kind of legislation, whether it will give certain governments more encouragement to reduce the importance of other languages in this country.”

Te reo Māori was turned into an official language since the passing of the Māori Language Act 1987. Since Māori has been classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, this proved vital to shield it from erasure. Latest numbers point out that only 4.3% of New Zealand’s population (about 213,849 people) can hold an everyday conversation in Māori. Still, it represents a priceless element of local heritage that people have long fought to preserve for future generations. Its continuous existence, following centuries of attempts to suppress it, on its own is a tremendous act of resilience.