2016 Māori Language Awards

Māori language revitalisation no longer a dream: now a plan

Air New Zealand has won the Supreme Award at the annual Māori Language Awards held tonight in New Plymouth.

The airline won the business award and went on to be awarded the major Tohu Reo Māori – Huia Te Reo for its decade long programme of integrating te reo Māori and Māori values into their workplaces and interactions with customers.

Māori Language Commission Chair Wayne Ngata says Air New Zealand’s sustained efforts to increase their use of te reo impressed the judges: “Hearing ‘Kia ora’ and ‘Nau mai, haeremai ki Aotearoa’ on board and staff wearing the ‘waha tohu’ showing they can speak Māori are just two of the many ways Air New Zealand is taking te reo to new heights. Air New Zealand’s use of language planning to achieve results is an exemplar for other organisations”.

A Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Dr Huirangi Waikerepuru. He has been a leader of the movement to revitalise te reo Māori since the 1970s, a long-time teacher of te reo Māori and is expert in the Taranaki dialect.

Dr Ngata says the Māori Language landscape has changed dramatically in the years since Dr Waikerepuru began his work.

“We have seen the generation born at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th pass away. We have seen the overwhelming enthusiasm of the Māori people to revitalise the language with initiatives like kōhanga reo, kura kaupapa and community language planning and action. And we have seen, slowly at first, but with increasing determination, the Crown enter into a positive partnership for revitalisation.”

Dr Ngata says an expression of the partnership is the new Māori Language Act 2016, shepherded through Parliament by Hon Te Ururoa Flavell. “The new law for the first time recognises the complementary roles of the Crown and Māori in revitalisation,” he says.

“2016 will be seen as a pivotal year in which revitalisation stopped being a dream, and became a plan.”