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Reviving Pasifika languages of the Realm

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The Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau are a part of the realm of New Zealand. What could this mean for the indigenous languages of those islands?

Teanau Tuiono in the islands

As I write this it is Cook Islands Language week, which also means we are in the middle of the New Zealand winter. So for most Pacific Islanders, feeling the cold (one of my car doors was so frozen this morning it wouldn’t open!) makes the tropical pull of our home islands that much more compelling.

The theme for this year is, “Kia ngākau parau, kia rangarangatu to tatou reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani“, translated, “Be proud of your language and protect its future”. It is a theme that underpins the perilous state of the languages and dialects of the Cook Islands. Niue also shares a similar threat.  Both the Niuean and the Cook Islands languages feature on UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. This view supported by a  2010 research publication, ‘O tatou ō aga’i i fea?/ `Oku tau ō ki fe? Where are we heading?: Pacific languages in Aotearoa/New Zealand1 by researchers John McCaffery and Judy Taligalu McFall-McCaffery which suggests that Niuean and Cook Islands Māori languages will disappear from New Zealand within a generation, unless urgent action is taken2. The research highlighted that fewer than five percent of the New Zealand-born population can speak Cook Islands Māori, and less than 11 per cent of the Niuean population can speak the Niuean language in New Zealand.

This was also highlighted in the PPTA Komiti Pasifika Paper, ‘Mind your language’, where it was noted:

‘Depopulation significantly affects the islands of Niue, Tokelau, and the Cook Islands. 91 percent of Niueans, 83 per cent of Tokelauans, and 73 percent of Cook Islanders now live in New Zealand. Because of the dominant numbers living in New Zealand and speaking English, it is likely that if they [the languages] fail in New Zealand they will not survive in the islands either. In fact, there will not be another generation of speakers of Cook Islands Māori Rarotongan in New Zealand. This language has dropped intergenerationally to levels as low as those of New Zealand Māori (5-8 per cent of school-aged children) before Te Kohanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa Māori began.3’

With my father a Cook Island Māori and my mother a New Zealand Māori this kind of makes me Māori-Māori. Confused? Then you would be like the kid I went to school with in Avarua Primary, Rarotonga, when I tried to explain to him that ‘yes’ there were Māori in New Zealand, and not just in the Cook Islands. He was amazed. There were no television stations or televisions back then in Rarotonga, so I couldn’t visually prove what I was saying. He had to take my word for it, that yes my mum was a Māori, and yes she was from New Zealand.  

Down at the Tumunu on the island of Atiu
Down at the Tumunu on the island of Atiu

It’s quite ironic that I often find I need to use the colonial terms i.e. ‘New Zealand’ and ‘Cooks’, to draw distinctions and similarities between both the New Zealand Māori and Cook Islands Māori. I use ‘Aotearoa’ in place of ‘New Zealand’, when referring to ideas or contexts outside the ‘establishment’, like the land wars, the Treaty of Waitangi, and most aspects of tikanga Māori.

When I was young, most New Zealand Māori hui I went to were conducted in English, and most Cook Islands Māori gatherings were in the Cook Islands Māori language. On the Cook Islands side, we were encouraged to speak English because this would help us assimilate better into mainstream New Zealand, while our parents’ generation spoke in our island languages. The opposite was happening with my New Zealand Māori side. Assimilation wasn’t an option. There was the historical 1975 Māori Land March led by northern matriarch, Whina Cooper, successive Māori land occupations taking place around the country, and regular protests at Waitangi calling for the Crown to honour the Treaty. My mother and her generation had Te Reo Māori literally ‘whacked’ out of them at school. Māori language revitalisation continues to be a strong part of the Māori renaissance, and as a parent of Kura Kaupapa children, it is something I am grateful for. The benefits of bilingualism and multilingualism are well documented. The cognitive benefits have associated educational advantages, as well as having the added ability to help ground people in their culture, and strengthen their ties to their identity.

Strong community organisation, and consistency in reminding the State of its responsibilities and obligations to Māori, were a key feature to advocating for Te Reo Māori in Aotearoa. Clearly, Cook Islands Māori, despite being a Māori people, are not Tāngata Whenua of Aotearoa. I understand this more acutely than most, as someone that walks in both worlds. The establishment of New Zealand as a settler colony resulted in the loss of Māori and land resources often through violence (The New Zealand Land Wars) or legislation specifically designed to take away what little land remained  The Cook Islands also experienced colonisation but not as a settler colony due in the main to its size and relative isolation. The Cook Islands and Niue became New Zealand’s first Pacific colonies in 1901 and then protectorates along with supporting war efforts in WW1. The ability of mass arrival came much later with the opening of the Rarotonga International Airport, by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, in 1974. The experiences of colonisation in both cases are as different as they are geographically apart yet the impacts continue to reverberate for generations.

Growing up, I did not know that New Zealand had a ‘realm’, and that I was a part of it. The Realm of New Zealand is the entire area whereby the Queen of New Zealand is the head of state. It is a collection of states and territories united under its monarch. New Zealand has one Antarctic territorial claim, the Ross Dependency; one dependent territory, Tokelau; and two associated states, the Cook Islands and Niue. In 1965 the Cook Islands became a self-governing in free-association with New Zealand and Niue followed in 1974. New Zealand is officially responsible for the defence and foreign affairs of the Cook Islands and Niue. However, these responsibilities confer New Zealand no rights of control and can only be exercised at the request of the Cook Islands and Niue. Tokelau came under New Zealand control in 1925 and remains a non-self-governing territory. With that relationship comes New Zealand passports which helps with access to jobs particularly in Australia where most Cook Islanders migrate to these days4. New Zealand supports the Cook Islands as a part of its development efforts in the Pacific5 and the Cook Islands supports New Zealand with imports for the tourism industry ($70.9 million in 2016)6.

All good relationships are based on the understanding that commitment is a two-way street, and the Pacific Islands communities are no strangers to this. This has culminated in an environment where Pacific Islanders continue to contribute at every level of New Zealand society, spanning from areas of sporting prowess and academic excellence, to arts and culture, and other spheres of New Zealand.

Cook Islands WW1 commemorations in Porirua
Cook Islands WW1 commemorations in Porirua

That commitment was profoundly demonstrated during World War One. The ranks of the Māori Contingent were seriously depleted during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915, and subsequently, recruitment in New Zealand became more difficult. The government looked to Niue and the Cook Islands for reinforcements. Māui Pomare, the Member of Parliament for Western Māori and Minister Responsible for the Cook and Other Islands, took personal responsibility for this recruiting. An estimated 500 Cook Islanders, and a significant number of Niueans, responded. Most of them were in the Rarotongan Company, which served with the British in Sinai and Palestine, as ammunition handlers7. Māori leaders, such as Sir Āpirana Ngata, saw participation in war as the ‘price of citizenship’. A price that both Niue and the Cook Islands paid.

The right to learn and use one’s own language is an internationally recognised human right. While New Zealand has a particular responsibility under the Treaty of Waitangi and international law, to protect and promote te reo Māori as the indigenous language of New Zealand, it also has a special responsibility to protect and promote other languages that are indigenous to the New Zealand realm.

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Recognition of the various Pasifika ‘Language Weeks’ galvanise communities to celebrate who our respective languages and culture. But we need to be doing this for more than just one week out of a whole year. As someone who works in the Māori medium education sector, I am more than aware that when communities want to throw weight behind language revitalisation initiatives, it must be matched by resourcing and commitment. I think the Cook Islands and Niue have shown substantial commitment to New Zealand over the years, and so ensuring the protection and survival of their languages would be a significant way to reciprocate that commitment. It is a conversation not only for those of us from the islands but for those who remember that Aotearoa / New Zealand is part of a wider whānau of Pacific nations. The identities and cultures of Pasifika peoples are like the Pacific ocean itself unable to be contained by borders between nation states. There is no ‘us’ and ‘them’ there is only ‘us’ and ‘ourselves’ and everything we do for Pasifika languages and education in Aotearoa must be done from the perspective of that great wide ocean.  

 

References

  1. The research draws together statistics, research, public data and community information from New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. This includes information collected during visits to the four Pacific Island nations, 2006 Census data and The Pasifika Languages of Manukau Project – a major sociolinguistic study which examined Samoan, Tongan, Niue and Cook Island dialects in Auckland between 2000 and 2008.
  2. http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2010/09/niue-and-cook-island-maori-languages-threatened/
  3. https://www.ppta.org.nz/dmsdocument/302
  4. https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/LifeinAustralia/Documents/MulticulturalAffairs/cook_islands.pdf
  5. https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/aid-and-development/our-work-in-the-pacific/cook-islands/
  6. https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/cok/
  7. http://blog.core-ed.org/blog/2015/07/ka-akamaara-ua-rai-tatou-ia-ratou-we-will-remember-them.html
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atiu

Going back to the Island

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Diving deeper into the cultures our students carry into the classrooms.

Last year, I was fortunate to go back to my home island of Atiu, in the Cook Islands. It is the place where my father was born, before the Cook Islands even became a nation (the nation of the Cook Islands is only about 50 years old plus change). I went there with Pounamu Media as the focus of a documentary where they were looking at Māori (my mother is a Ngāpuhi) who also had whakapapa connections elsewhere, and, in my case, Pasifika. The focus is on the connection to a tīpuna. I chose my grandfather, so, not someone who had passed a long time ago, but within living memory — I figure you become a tīpuna once you’ve passed on. You can still view the documentary here.

going home to the island

The journey there made me think of how being Pasifika is different depending on where you are and changes over time. As a semi-frequent visitor to the Cook Islands, like many, I try and go back when I can. We refer to the specific islands where our parents were born as our home island and, although I spent some time there in my childhood on Rarotonga (the main island), my experience of being Pasifika has been through the lens of our migrant community here in Aotearoa. Between the 1960s–1980s, being Pasifika meant you were one of the people who got off the boat or plane from the islands. We were relatively easily definable with our common community experiences of seeking employment and education opportunities. In the 1980s I did not know many kids who had both Māori and Pasifika whakapapa, however, today — in 2018 — you’re Pasifika if you got off the plane five minutes ago from the islands or you are the culmination of decades of cross-cultural interactions in melting pots like South Auckland or Porirua. What that diversity of experience means is that my experience of being raised as Pasifika minority in a predominately Palagi population, I could have more in common with say a Niuean kid from Otahuhu than, say, my own relatives born and raised on our home islands, despite our close affinity. (I say Niuean kid in Otahuhu because, yeah, I’ve had this conversation with some Niueans about my age from Otahuhu.)

Atiu

My “home island”

Atiu is an island 187 km northeast of Rarotonga, in the Southern Islands group of the Cook Islands. It is a raised volcanic island surrounded by a reef from which rise 6-metre-high (20-foot) cliffs of fossilized coral (makatea). The makatea cliff forms a one-mile-wide (1.6-kilometre) ring round the island, creating a virtual plateau. The low swampy land consists of taro plantations, marshes, and a lake, Te Roto. This fertile area also grows bananas, citrus fruits, pawpaws, breadfruit, and coconuts. The ancient name of the island was, Enuamanu, meaning, the island of insects and animals. The population is approximately 200. There are significant populations in New Zealand and Australia along with a village called Patutoa in French Polynesia.

Fun Fact: Adrian Orr, the new Governor of the Reserve Bank is also from the island of Atiu. His grandfather migrated to Aotearoa in the 1930s.

What does this mean for educators?

So, what does all this mean for educators here in Aotearoa?

It means we shouldn’t pigeonhole Pasifika students. We shouldn’t assume they all go to church or like sports. Cultures are organic, so our shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices as Pasifika peoples also change over time and context. Because of this, we can assume that each student will have his or her own singular experience about what it means to be Pasifika. There is a rich diversity in what it means to be Pasifika.

I had the privilege over a number of years to work with Ruta Mackenzie, and she would often start her workshops with the following saying:

O tu, aganu’u, ma agaifanua a le tamititi o le a le mafai ona ulufale atu i le potuaoga sei vagana ua fa’atauaina ma faaulufaleina muamua I le loto ma le agaga o le faiaoga.

The culture of the child cannot enter the classroom until it has entered the consciousness of the teacher.

A perfect reminder to have an open mind when working with our Pasifika students, and that we have to go beyond merely pronouncing names properly (this is the basics, guys!). We can take a closer look at how we are meeting our learners’ needs by developing further inquiry into best cultural, inclusive practice. While most schools acknowledge cultural responsiveness in their school charters and strategic plans, this doesn’t always translate well into practice.

This is also what the research tells us:

Alton-Lee (2003) stated “that effective teaching requires teachers to take responsibility for every student’s achievement, to value diversity, have high expectations, and build on students’ experiences. For Pasifika students this requires teachers to understand their day-to-day experiences, their cultural background and the dimensions that make this up including language and cultural values”. (Education Counts: Quality teaching for diverse students in schooling)1.

It’s about creating environments with students at the centre, where Pasifika students have the focus and learning support they need to lift their academic achievement patterns.

In an earlier blog post, Anthony Faitaua showed it like this:

Level One: Surface level — greetings, pronunciation
Level Two: Environmental — the walls reflect diversity
Level Three: Curriculum — a diverse range of texts and authors are represented
Level Four: Pedagogical — teaching style is varied to reflect diversity and to cater to specific cultural needs
Level Five: Assessment — students are assessed in culturally diverse and appropriate contexts

 

We need to appreciate our students with the fullness of cultural diversity that they bring with them when they step into the classroom. It is a cultural diversity that encompasses Aotearoa as a Pacific nation where Pasifika identities continue to grow as they did back in our island homes.

 

1 Ministry of Education Te Tāhuhu o Te Mātauranga. Education Counts. (2003). Quality Teaching for Diverse Students In Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration (BES). Wellington, New Zealand: Author.

Image credits:
Photos taken from video of author: Pounamu Media
Photo of island beach scene: the author.

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Cook Islands language week

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Kia orana. Aere mai, tapiri mai, i te ‘akaepaepaanga ite ‘Epetoma o te reo Māori Kuki Airani.

It’s winter. It’s cold. If you’re like me you were wishing you were in the islands. Welcome to Cook Islands Language week which runs from Sunday 30 July – Saturday 5 August 2017. The aim of Cook Islands Language Week is to celebrate Cook Islands language and culture and to promote the teaching, learning and use of language in every environment.

The theme for Te ‘Epetoma o te Reo Māori Kūki ’Āirani: Cook Islands Language Week 2017 is:

`Ei rāvenga nāku i te tuatua i tōku reo Māori Kūki ’Āirani ka anoano au i te turuturu ā tōku ngutu`are tangata `ē te matakeinanga
An encouraging home and community environment is what I need to build my love and my confidence to speak my reo Māori Kūki ’Āirani

cook island language week

There is a huge range of events and activities happening at a town near you! Check out the events calendar at the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs (PDF, 250kb).

I’d like to share with you a few facts and resources to assist you in your classroom.

Some facts about languages in the Cook Island

Did you know that there are three distinct Polynesian languages are spoken in the Cook Islands? They are:

  • Cook Islands Māori is an Eastern Polynesian language, belonging to the same language family as New Zealand Māori and the languages of Hawai‘i and Tahiti. It has a number of distinct dialects.
  • The language of Pukapuka is a Western Polynesian language, belonging to the same language family as the languages of Sāmoa, Tuvalu, and Tokelau. Pukapuka Island’s inclusion as part of the
  • Cook Islands has resulted in some Cook Islands Māori terms and expressions being adopted into the Pukapuka language.
  • Palmerston Island has its own unique and distinctive mixture of Cook Islands Māori and English.

Also, there are different dialects. Speakers of one dialect can understand the others. These dialects are:

  • Aitutaki;
  • Ātiu, Ma‘uke, and Miti‘āro (Ngāpūtoru);
  • Mangaia;
  • Manihiki and Rakahanga;
  • Rarotonga;
  • Tongareva (Penrhyn).

The dialect of Rarotonga is the most widely used and standardised dialect, both in the Cook Islands
and within Cook Islands communities in New Zealand. Learners of Cook Islands ancestry whose
heritage language is that of Pukapuka or whose heritage dialect is other than that of Rarotonga
benefit from learning the Rarotongan dialect as a lingua franca because they are part of the Cook
Islands community. Learners of Cook Islands Māori who are not of Cook Islands ancestry normally
begin by learning the dialect spoken in Rarotonga.

Learning resources

Here are a few learning resources that I have found helpful:

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I Too Am Auckland

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What are the educational experiences like for our Pasifika learners? This was a question we were grappling with at our latest Pasifika fono.

  • What are the assumptions we have about our Pasifika students and why do we have those assumptions?
  • How can we then illustrate the impact some of those assumptions can have on our students?
  • Have attitudes changed?
  • Or, do we as educators working in the Pasifika education sector need to speak more clearly or if needed, more loudly?

It is the 1990s, I am studying for an Equity exam at Auckland University. Like a lot of students from South Auckland, I'm on a budget, and I look like I’m on a budget. After taking a break from studying, I’m about to walk back into the library when a man bursts out yelling ‘there’s that suspicious-looking Polynesian kid, grab him’. I turn around to see who he is yelling at. It turns out, it's me. Just before they are about to pounce on me, one of the security guards recognises me, “Um, that guy is a student here”. Annoyed? Yes. Surprised. No. These experiences were fairly common. What was worse was when it happened in front of a crowd of palagi, and all eyes were on you, the poor kid from South Auckland. Sometimes, when you’re a minority, or you represent a number of minority groups, you learn to hide among the crowd; to find the little cracks and corners to squeeze yourself into, to avoid drawing attention to your differences. Humiliation. Frustration. Anger.

That was over 20 years ago.
Have things changed?

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Ka ‘akama’ara ‘ua rāi tātou iā rātou – We will remember them

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It is 2014, and I’m sitting at the Puanga Market in Avarua. Some of the locals are talking about the role of Cook Islanders in World War One. The tone is one of respectful remembrance. Many of our great grandfathers who returned did not speak about their experiences the horror and trauma of War — too much of a burden to share. An estimated 500 Cook Islanders and a significant number of Niueans served in WW1. This is a massive number for a country, which, at the last census, had a population around 15000. Most of them were in the Rarotongan Company, which served with the British in Sinai and Palestine as ammunition handlers.

Cook Islands celebration
Cook Islands commemorations in Porirua

It is ANZAC week 2015, and I am sitting in the Akapuanga Hall in Porirua at a Commemoration Ceremony. Names are being called out and descendants of those people are asked to come forward in remembrance of their tupuna. Most of us at some stage had been educated in New Zealand. There are questions. Why did we get involved? How were our people treated? Why were we not taught these things in school?

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