BREAKFAST LAUNCH OF MAORI LANGUAGE WEEK
THURSDAY 20 JULY, 7.00 – 9.00am
Thank you for inviting me to speak at the launch of Maori Language week. It is a great pleasure to be standing here on Maori land, in a country where the Maori language is relatively strong. I understand that approximately 25 percent of Maori speak the Maori language. I think that is a significant achievement in the light of various past policies that have negatively impacted on the maintenance of the Maori language.
Like Australia, here in New Zealand, policies to alienate indigenous lands, successive assimilation policies, and the migration policies of the 19th and 20th Centuries have all taken a toll on our languages.
Your country has taken some positive steps to revitalise Maori language since the 1970s. There have been Maori language programs in schools and the establishment of a Maori radio network. Having said this, I also know that the relatively strong position of the Maori language should not be taken for granted. It needs continuing support, and importantly, it needs to be supported by the will of the New Zealand people.
Unfortunately languages are in peril across the globe. The 2005 Australian National Indigenous Languages Survey tells us that at least 3000 of the world’s 6000 languages are losing speakers and are endangered, and at least 800 are very close to extinction. The disappearance of languages is rapid and accelerating and UNESCO estimates that about 90 per cent of the world’s languages may be lost by the end of the twenty-first century.
From a human and a cultural heritage viewpoint, this is a disaster of huge proportions, and one that is moving so fast that international action is needed immediately to deal with it.
Over the last century, my country has witnessed the largest and most rapid loss of languages of anywhere in the world.1 In Australia most of the original 300 or so languages, (in fact, over 700, if you count the dialects), are now no longer spoken, and many more are teetering on the brink of extinction. Only about 20 Indigenous languages are considered not to be in danger, but in the longer term, none of these can be considered safe. Indigenous languages are all likely to disappear this century unless a major effort is made by governments and communities.
Obviously the situation is more complex in Australia than for New Zealand. While you have one dominant Maori language, we have had hundreds. The sheer number of Indigenous languages and the diversity of their circumstances, means that a coordinated approach to maintaining and revitalising language is complex. In the absence of unlimited language resources for schools for example, governments have largely chosen to ignore Indigenous languages. It is only recently that Australian governments have begun to look seriously at language maintenance and revitalisation policy and programs.
Part of the problem for Indigenous language in Australia is the Federal / State / Territory model of government. Our Federal government funds the States, and States have legislative functions to set their own education priorities. Therefore there has been no consistency in approach to Indigenous languages across Australian jurisdictions, and there has been varying will on the part of state and territory governments to commit to it.
I am pleased to tell you that we now have a national policy that makes specific reference to supporting and maintaining Indigenous language and culture: Each Australian State and Territory has to report against this policy to receive Indigenous specific funding. But we haven’t been at it as long as you. This policy was introduced in the mid 1990s, and we still have a very long way to go.
So what human rights principles are relevant to the maintenance of Indigenous language and culture?
In terms of education for school children, Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights requires that education be available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable. This provides an appropriate standard against which to assess the Australian government’s performance. Unfortunately however, although Australia ratified this Covenant in 1975, it has not been incorporated into Australian domestic law. Therefore under the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act, we cannot investigate complaints that the Commonwealth has violated its obligation to provide ‘acceptable’ education.
Also appropriate to language maintenance in Australia is Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In essence, this convention provides that: minorities shall not be denied the right… to enjoy their own culture, … or to use their own language. …
Of other initiatives within the UN, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples favours strong recognition of language rights. This Declaration has been recently endorsed by the Human Rights Council, and will be presented to the UN General Assembly for vote some time this year. This Convention outlines the right of Indigenous peoples to pass their language and culture on to future generations. Article 15 states that:
…Indigenous children living outside their communities have the right to be provided access to education in their own culture and language…
In Australia bilingual education has a tentative foothold in remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. There are sound educational reasons for bilingual education. Bilingual programs establish literacy in the child's first language before developing literacy in English. It breaks the pupil's initial learning tasks into two: first they learn to read and write in their first language, and then they begin to cope with English. The child only has to tackle one major task at a time, that of learning to read, without the added burden of learning a new language at the same time. Unfortunately there have been various government attempts to de-fund bilingual programs, though through the efforts of Indigenous people and their protests, 11 programs have remained.
I’d like to bring your attention research published last year which found that Northern Territory children taught in the vernacular, that is, in their own languages in bilingual programs, do marginally better in English literacy outcomes in Years 5 and 7, than students from similar schools who had been instructed in the English language.
This suggests to me that Indigenous languages are not competing with the English language; in fact, teaching Indigenous languages enhances English outcomes. If we are to educate children to live in two worlds, bilingual programs provide the means by which to bridge the divide. If the Northern Territory research is anything to go by, the benefits of bilingual programs as are manyfold.
Language is a fundamental element of culture. We must continue to reaffirm the fundamental role that language and (therefore language education), plays in the protection and promotion of cultural. We must nurture and enhance language through other societal institutions such as the media. We should also ensure that signs and symbols are produced in languages that recognise the Indigenous people of each region.
It is not enough to focus attention on endangered languages; we must continue to monitor and resource all Indigenous languages. To this end, I am pleased to be part of the launch of Maori Language week. Initiatives such as this one bring to the attention of all New Zealanders, the importance of the Maori language and culture.
Footnotes
[1] (Nettle & Romaine 2000: 9)
