Business_Spotlight_No3_202..

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION 3/2020 Business Spotlight 27

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INTERVIEW

“By 2040, the government would like to see one million

New Zealand speakers of the Maori language”

DR RACHAEL KA’AI-MAHUTA

is a senior lecturer at the

National Maori Language

Institute at the International

Centre for Language Revitali­

sation, Auckland University of

Technology. A Maori language

specialist, she has a grandfather

from Hawaii and a New Zealand

Maori grandmother. She also has

ancestors from the Cook Islands,

other parts of the Pacific, France,

Ireland and Wales.

How many Maori languages

are there?

In New Zealand, there is one Maori language and many dialects,

but we can all understand each other. The dialects are in danger,

however, because the language as a whole is endangered. The

indigenous people of the Cook Islands also refer to themselves as

Maori and are probably the closest cousins we have in terms of

language and culture. We have stories about our migration from the

Cook Islands and they have stories about us leaving.

What are the aims of the National Maori Language Institute?

It opened in 2008 and was one of the first places to do research

in the university system into Maori language revitalization. A big

success in its first ten years was a push towards using digital

technology to aid in the revitalization movement. The most

frequently used online Maori language dictionary in the country

— MaoriDictionary.co.nz — came out of the institute. Last year, its

scope expanded beyond language revitalization, to look at other

things, such as traditional knowledge and education.

How many people currently speak Maori?

The quality of the data isn’t great. From the 2013 census, we know

that just under four per cent of the general public speak Maori. If

we look at just the Maori population, the percentage is a lot higher,

around 21 per cent. In 2018, the government announced two big

goals for the language: one was that, by 2040, they would like to see

one million New Zealand speakers of the Maori language. That is at

any level of proficiency; and the majority will probably be beginners.

The second big goal is that they would like to see 150,000 Maori

speaking the Maori language at the same level of proficiency as they

speak English.

Is it common to hear Maori spoken in New Zealand?

My husband and I recently took an early morning walk with our

daughter along the waterfront in Auckland. There were lots

of joggers and walkers doing their morning exercise. We were

speaking Maori and, twice, people heard us speaking and then

said morena, the Maori word for “good morning”. My husband

and I were absolutely floored because we had never experienced

that as children — total strangers, who didn’t appear to be Maori,

speaking the language. That has become more common. It’s become

normalized.

What can we learn about the environment from the traditional

Maori belief system and the Maori language?

I think there’s always something to learn from indigenous peoples

and the way we interact and connect with the environment.

Obviously, for a lot of indigenous groups, including Maori, we have

been separated from our belief system, separated from living more

with the environment. Modern living is not very conducive to that.

But if we look at Maori culture and our traditions, we call ourselves

tangata whenua, and this means “people of the land”. We have

this belief system whereby everything in nature is connected to

a genealogy. The word whakapapa, which loosely translates as

“genealogy”, means so much more — that we are the youngest

siblings of everything in nature. We have signals in our language

that tell us about connections to the land. The word whenua means

“land”, as well as “afterbirth”. We bury the afterbirth in our ancestral

lands, and when we die, we are buried, so that connection to the

land is there.

Maori expert: Rachael Ka’ai-Mahuta

Endangered:

the Maori

language and

dialects

afterbirth

[(A:ftEb§:T]

, Nachgeburt, Plazenta

aid in sth. [(eId In]

, bei etw. Hilfe(stellung)

leisten

ancestor [(ÄnsestE]

, Vorfahr(in)

conducive: be ~ to sth.

[kEn(dju:sIv]

, für etw. förderlich sein

endanger sth.

[In(deIndZE]

, etw. gefährden

floored: be ~ [flO:d] ifml.

, überwältigt sein

genealogy

[)dZi:ni(ÄlEdZi]

, [wg. Aussprache]

Hawaii [hE(waIi]

, [wg. Aussprache]

indigenous

[In(dIdZEnEs]

, indigen, Ureinwohner-

level of proficiency

[)lev&l Ev prE(fIS&nsi]

, Kenntnisstand,

Beherrschungsgrad

scope [skEUp]

, (Leistungs-)Umfang

senior lecturer

[)si:niE (lektSErE]

, außerordentliche(r)

Professor(in)

sibling [(sIblIN]

, Geschwisterteil

waterfront

[(wO:tEfrVnt]

, Hafenviertel