Maori-English Bilingual Education in New Zealand

Abstract

Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa-New Zealand, who collectively identify as iwi Maori, hold that the Maori language lies at the heart of the culture. The term ‘iwi Maori’ used here refers to the united tribal groupings of Maori people, whereas ‘Maori’ used on its own indicates a collective but less tribally specific perspective. Maori share experiences of the politics of oppression and repression resulting from nineteenth century British colonisation. Concentrated efforts by successive colonial governments to redefine the people, the language, and consequently the culture, in subordinate and negative terms served the colonial desire to dominate. A strong Maori identity threatened the assimilationist goal of one nation, one people and one language, English. In this respect the colonial project was very nearly successful. For iwi Maori however, the loss of control over major decision making processes began a long struggle for cultural survival. The nature of the problem, the struggle and the outcomes as they are reflected in the provision of Maori language or bilingual Maori-English education are examined in this review. Maori initiatives aimed at language recovery are not merely instrumental efforts to revive a language for day to day communicative needs, but more importantly to fulfil psychological needs central to the well-being of Maori individuals and groups. To this end, despite restrictions upon domains of language use, restoration of the mauri, or life force of the people through the language, serves a greater purpose.