Niue And Cook Island Māori Languages Threatened
So runs the headline in Voxy, reporting the work of John McCaffery and Judy Taligalu McFall-McCaffery of the University of Auckland.
“Our research indicates that Pacific Island languages in New Zealand show significant signs of language shift and loss, with several languages, especially Cook Island Māori and Niue language unlikely to survive unless we do something now,….There are no plans at present for Niue or Cook Island bilingual education so prospects for the survival of these indigenous languages within the realm of New Zealand seem very unlikely.”
Using bilingual education shouldn’t be out of the question – in Wales, Welsh-medium schools are doing brilliantly, getting better academic results than English-medium schools. Bu it seems that even though New Zealanders have done well in terms of mother tongue medium instruction in Māori, when it comes to other languages, they want to ignore the potential. Just like Australia. Take the Australian Senator Mark Arbib who says
“Indigenous Australians must be taught English ahead of their traditional languages if they are to get jobs, Indigenous Employment Minister Mark Arbib says.Senator Arbib said while he wanted to see traditional languages kept alive, the focus had to be kept on English.
“It is going to be impossible for us to solve indigenous employment unless English is taught as the first language,” he told Sky News on Sunday.”
We have utterly failed in getting across to the people who run the governments the facts that:
(i) children CAN do really well academically and learn excellent English and get good jobs through being educated in their mother tongue.
(ii) if children are NOT given mother tongue medium instruction, this is an immediate sign that the State thinks their languages are useless.
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