On learning te reo Māori

February 2, 2023 5:50 PM

A growing number of non-Māori New Zealanders are embracing learning te reo – but there’s more to it than language. An article in The Conversation by Brian Tweed and Pania Te Maro, on approaching language learning in New Zealand Aotearoa through the lens of whakapapa: 'the emergence of new entities from their previous forms'.
posted by tavegyl (24 comments total)

When the descendants and beneficiaries of colonists use the language of the colonised and derive benefit thereby, that is always going to hurt some. Others will see it differently. The feelings around language loss and revival are deep and complex. But I am not put off. The role of Pakeha is to support.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 6:40 PM on February 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

Mod note: Just putting a stop to the Lorde derail now while things are fresh. Please try and focus on the conversation this post is intended for.
posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 6:58 PM on February 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

I visited New Zealand years ago to attend an educational conference that was hosted at a boys school, and we were greeted by what looked like an entire high school doing a haka to greet us. The student body was majority pakeha. The interaction betwen Maori and pakeha while I was there seemed consistently more nuanced than I expected, and also more respectful, while still having a tension implicit in it. As it says in the linked piece, "Non-Māori must figure out how to acquire te reo Māori without possessing it. It might help to return to our idea of two countries overlapping in time and space – New Zealand and Aotearoa."
posted by Peach at 7:02 PM on February 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

My siblings remigrated back to NZ as adults and for two of them, picking up some te reo and connecting to the local Maori community was a significant step in reconnecting. Legally I can claim registration to a tribe through my dad but genetically I am absolutely not Maori - when that came to light, I was surprised how disappointed I was even though I'd never been raised with any Maori culture. I'm looking forward to learning it as a second language - the thoughtful ways te reo has expanded to create new words such as takiwātanga for autism (loosely translates to - in their own time and space as needed) make it very enticing. I was a kid when Maori TV first came out and the pushback in my then very white NZ groups, and how it's now - people speak te reo to little kids! films! it's not historical but alive outside of homes.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:42 PM on February 2, 2023 [10 favorites]

Some background: the upcoming Feb 6th Waitangi Day is our national day, our 4th of July, it celebrates the signing of Te Tiriti - The Treaty, we don't have a written constitution, we have English common law, and that only through the lens of the treaty that ceded sovereignty - it's something that has not always been well honoured, though I think we're getting better at. Te reo words are a common part of our daily lives now, it's more than just learning a language, our NZ English is not Aussie English, or American English, more and more te reo is becoming common usage, but still in a small way.

I'm 64, I wish I had been taught te reo as a kid, latin? what fucking use was that ever to me?I've used my french maybe 3 times ever? I think in a modern NZ that some fluency in te reo is a must to be an educated person, and I missed out. I'm going to make the effort when I retire in 6 months (way too late sadly). But I agree with this article, it needs to be done with care and respect, no one needs me Pākehā-explaining their language.
posted by mbo at 7:50 PM on February 2, 2023 [7 favorites]

"to be an educated person"

Yes. But further, any person. There is a serious risk that Pakeha who have more advantages in an academic setting and more leisure and social capital will outstrip the very very people who should be first in the queue for learning the language, turning it into an elite signifier that shuts them out again. This is one of the things that those of us who are good at languages and practised at study need to be vigilant about. I am an eager student and a good one as an adult learner and I have screwed this up myself in reo night classes. It was easy for me to learn and humiliating for others and I didn't figure out in time it would have been good to just stfu more.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:17 PM on February 2, 2023 [11 favorites]

The constant charges of cultural appropriation even when trying to be done with consent and respect make me wonder why any white New Zealander would want to make the effort.
posted by hippybear at 8:17 PM on February 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

They aren't constant. Or even common. You don't live here, you'll have just have to take it on trust it doesn't work like that. To the extent I've posted links that expresses concerns or expressed them myself it's because they aren't often surfaced in mainstream discourse.

But consent is a very good word to use! Because consent isn't automatic nor will there always be a consensus from a group about how far it goes.

Anyway, I am a white New Zealander who continues to learn. There are lots of us.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:29 PM on February 2, 2023 [17 favorites]

Is a "pakeha" any non-Maori, or specifically the white colonists who live in NZ?
posted by egypturnash at 8:33 PM on February 2, 2023

The constant charges of cultural appropriation even when trying to be done with consent and respect make me wonder why any white New Zealander would want to make the effort.

Because the tremendously charged history of trauma here is the responsibility of white New Zealanders?

I think Mefi can throw around "cultural appropriation" with less thoughtfulness than it should, but if my people had been cut off from their native language(s?) by colonizers and still lacked institutional support for learning/teaching it amongst ourselves, I'd be touchy about colonizer use, too.

This was an interesting issue I wasn't aware of, joe's_spleen. Thanks for posting.
posted by praemunire at 8:34 PM on February 2, 2023 [12 favorites]

egypturnash: I'm not going to hold myself out as a Māori language usage expert, but in NZ English usage Pakeha generally refers to any European descended person whether from C19 settlers or yesterday. There is another term "tauiwi" (stranger) which definitely encompasses more (non Māori) ethnicities, and another phrase you might encounter is "tangata tiriti" (Treaty people) to describe people who live here through the Treaty of Waitangi.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:41 PM on February 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

Is anyone aware of language learning resources that emphasize the points raised by the article for pakeha?
posted by Senescence at 9:00 PM on February 2, 2023

Thanks for sharing the word for autism, dorothyisunderwood - and thanks tavegyl for the post. One of the wonderful things about learning languages is that they can expand your mind even if you never end up becoming fluent. I learnt a bit of te reo many years ago, and I remember being fascinated by the system of pronouns, which is genderless and features not only (like Arabic) a dual, but also two versions of 'we' depending on whether or not the listener is included in the group. What a different way of codyifying human relationships! You can't even use impoverished English pronouns to distinguish between singular and plural 'you'. (P.S. the condescending attitude towards the Australian colloquial solution, 'youse', is a classist outrage)
posted by happyfrog at 9:01 PM on February 2, 2023 [5 favorites]

"Pākehā" is also used generally used in the media as an alternative to "Māori" when making the distinction - in context it's polite in a way that say "honkey" would not be elsewhere
posted by mbo at 9:47 PM on February 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

mbo: I'm going to make the effort when I retire in 6 months (way too late sadly).
Never too late! My cousin really only started on retirement and he eventually wrote a 'minority interest' book about his discoveries: How to Find a Taniwha : a deep connection between English and Māori words.
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:38 AM on February 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

Really appreciate this post (thank you, tavegyl!), and likewise the explicit discussion in the comments here about cultural appropriation, both what goes into responsible learning and the concerns of white learners. The experience that i_am_joe’s_spleen shares parallels experiences I have had IRL in Indigenous or minoritized spaces. Less being shouted at by would-be allies, more a blend of appreciation, wariness, and explicit “here’s what to do not to be an ass.”
posted by cupcakeninja at 3:26 AM on February 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

I thought this was an interesting turn of phrase:

"We Pākehā struggle to realise we’re often in the middle of the road blocking the natural flow for others.” — Catherine Delahunty"
posted by eustatic at 5:42 AM on February 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

This was a great piece, thanks for sharing. I'm not sure I totally understand the whakapapa concept, and in some ways that's part and parcel of the very point the author is making.
posted by dusty potato at 7:21 AM on February 3, 2023

just wanted to say thanks to tavegyl for the post. sent the article to my niece, who has the unusual doctoral studies combo of marine bio & anthropology, and has done field work there and is headed back on an NSF grant. she's almost certainly aware of the issue but the discussion is deep and thoughtful and perhaps will give her a bit more insight.
posted by martin q blank at 8:41 AM on February 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

In 1962, my kiwi-born pakeha parents published a photo-essay book of a day in the life of a very charismatic Maori lad called Charlie. The book Hey Boy! (the title referred to how other Maori kids called out to him) was pretty successful (my professional photographer dad took the photos and he and my journalist mother wrote a wonderful almost-stream-of-consciousness text).

I just checked my copy now. At one point Charlie [Tumahai] says, "I know a few Maori words, but only the old people on our street can speak Maori properly."
This chimes with my memory of starting school in NZ, none of the Maori pupils spoke the language, and I distinctly recall that when they did utter the odd phrase - it was stamped down

(Charlie Tumahai died aged 46 in 1995 - heart attack. He had a brilliant career as a rock musician- playing London's Hammersmith Odeon- and youth mentor.)
posted by Jody Tresidder at 11:03 AM on February 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

"two versions of 'we' depending on whether or not the listener is included in the group"

The linguistics term for this is "clusivity," though when I was a linguistics student my instructors all just said "inclusive/exclusive we."

Appreciate the post and thoughtful discussion.
posted by humbug at 11:31 AM on February 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

I work as a contractor in a public sector organisation in New Zealand. The values of the organisation are expressed in Māori concepts. Most of the programs that are rolled out internally, including leadership programs and structures, have a Māori name reflecting Te Ao Māori (the Māori world). The Chief Executive's weekly organisation-wide email has a Māori name. We have a number of recommended karakia (prayer/incantation) to open and close meetings. Respecting the language/syntax/grammar of te reo Maori (use macrons, don't pluralise Māori words by adding an 's', don't hyphenate key phrases, etc.) is a given, and not doing so is considered down right rude and disrespectful.

These are all conscious and deliberate decisions taken by the organisation and its leadership. If I, as a pākehā, am to work successfully and effectively in my role within this organisation I need to engage, respect, and embrace te reo Māori. Everyone in the organisation does - to a greater or lesser extent for sure - but te reo Māori is very much an everyday aspect of working here. In my view you simply could not work in this organisation, and many other public sector organisations, without engaging and using, to some extent, te reo Māori. I personally have found it tremendously enriching.

I don't think any of this is "appropriation" or "possessing" the language but rather part of the Crown wanting to engage as a genuine Treaty partner with Māori. Of course there have been, and will continue to be, tension and conflict in this process. But it is part of us become Aotearoa/New Zealand and I am certainly up for it.
posted by vac2003 at 12:44 PM on February 3, 2023 [10 favorites]

I remember seeing a Penny Arcade cartoon "We're reforming the band" where the joke was built around the 3rd person in the cartoon didn't realise that "we" didn't include him .... and thinking "that just would't be funny in Māori"
posted by mbo at 9:17 PM on February 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

I grew up in NZ, moving to Australia in 1977. I remember NZ at that time as being pretty much the same as Australia in the sense of how the population related to its aboriginal heritage - more or less not at having anything to do with it in any meaningful way. I've returned to NZ a few times over the past five years or so (not at all before that) and have been amazed at the change in the attitude of Kiwis to Māori generally and toward their language specifically.

The New Zealand of 1977 was one in which it was commonly accepted that Māori culture was dead or dying and the language the same or worse. Accepted with a shrug, not as something to be sad or upset about. But the New Zealand of 2023 is a very different place with regard to the prominence of Māori culture and the respect given to the concept that the original New Zealanders are the Māori, not the white colonists. I don't expect that this respect is universal by any means and I'm sure there are lots of people very disgruntled about what they see as being displaced as the rightful owners of the land, of course. I see (and welcome) the increasing use of both English and Māori by not just government agencies but across the board. I hadn't thought, though, about the need to consider how people acquire te reo Māori and the importance of white people stepping back to allow people to access their own language before they jump on the bandwagon.

I certainly haven't seen anything that amounts to cultural appropriation and it seems to me that New Zealand has managed to bring te reo Māori back to life along with a new-found respect for Māori traditions and beliefs from both Māori and Pākehā. Doing this without disrespecting either side (too much) is an amazing start.

There's something unique about New Zealand and its people. I can't put my finger on it, but it's why my wife and I have been talking about moving back there permanently.
posted by dg at 3:15 PM on February 5, 2023 [3 favorites]