As the late Moana Jackson commented, the meaning of Te Tiriti will be talked about in each generation because it is about a relationship between Maori and Pakeha and relationships must always be worked on.

Here, we focus on the learning of te reo Maori by non-Maori in relation to Te Tiriti and the Maori concept of whakapapa in the hope of continuing the conversation and the relationship.

For full disclosure, we are married. Pania is Ngati Porou and her father is a native speaker. Brian is Pakeha. We both learned te reo Maori as a second language as adults. We will come back to this later.

The learning of te reo Maori by non-Maori has become cool. Growing numbers of non-Maori are enrolled in te reo courses and there are many new resources to support their learning. It cannot be separated from Tiriti concerns and whakapapa.

Several authors have commented on this phenomenon of non-Maori enthusiasm for te reo Maori and Maori knowledge, highlighting the complex nature of the motivations involved.

Alison Jones, a Pakeha scholar in Indigenous education, notices how the demand by non-Maori to have te reo echoes the colonising demand to have Maori land.

Catherine Delahunty, a Pakeha activist in environmental and social justice, reminds non-Maori to "stay in our lane", and warns that if we don't, we effectively co-opt and attempt to control things that don't belong to us.

Nicola Bright, a senior researcher of Tuhoe and Ngati Awa descent at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER), tells us Maori should benefit first from the revitalisation of te reo Maori.

Georgina Tuari Stewart, a scholar who explores the nexus between culture and education, alerts us to the need to accept the limits of our ability to know in relation to Maori knowledge.

In our own work, as academics focused on Indigenisation and decolonisation of education systems, we talk of New Zealand and Aotearoa as two different countries occupying the same land. Te Tiriti is about relations between these two countries.

A whakapapa perspective on language

We see the learning of te reo Maori with a whakapapa lens. We refer to whakapapa as the emergence of new entities from their previous forms. Inherent in our understanding is an acceptance that entities have a natural right to have their whakapapa respected.

For most non-Maori, languages have been commodified and are available on demand. We liken this to having a language supermarket. Customers can buy various products "off the shelf" to allow them to learn any language they like.

These days, the supermarket is virtual and the products are digital apps. We see the dark irony in Maori having to shop for their own language in this supermarket.

In this commodified world, language is understood as a symbolic code that can be learned to express your thoughts. Learning a new language just means learning a new code. This is a distinctly colonising and capitalist view of language which cuts right across whakapapa, treating language as a disembodied entity, fixed through a vocabulary and a set of rules.

Viewed through whakapapa, a language is inherent in the worldviews and experiences of the people who emerge with it. Seen this way, languages cannot be separated from the people who speak them and who have inherited them from their ancestors.

Could non-Maori learning te reo be akin to colonisation?

The learning of te reo Maori, whether we like it or not, is already in the public domain. Anyone can learn it and we encourage everyone to do so. But if not done well and ethically, it could be another wave of colonisation.

If we go about learning te reo Maori as if it were a symbolic code or a commodified product that will provide certain (economic and self-investment) benefits, several things become apparent.

Since we learn a commodified version of te reo, we are not part of any processes of emergence alongside the people whose heritage te reo Maori is. This commodified form is in fact part of whakapapa for many non-Maori. It has emerged from our experiences and worldview and is a form of appropriation.

The taking of other people's stuff and refashioning it for our purposes is indeed colonisation. But there is also great potential for growth as people and as a nation because learning a language can change you.

In whakapapa terms, the presence of te reo Maori in your life has become part of the emergence of the next versions of you and your descendants. The bottom line is to understand and respect whakapapa.Read more: Learning to live with the 'messy, complicated history' of how Aotearoa New Zealand was colonised

Honouring te Tiriti

Non-Maori people must first acknowledge the right for te reo to emerge in the world along with the people whose own emergence is intimately entwined with it through whakapapa. That's iwi Maori.

This is a difficult task because many non-Maori are so used to believing that, in theory at least, they can know and possess anything (if they want to and put in the effort). Respecting whakapapa then involves non-Maori in a necessary self-limitation which runs counter to their own cultural development in a capitalist, exploitative and predatory culture.

Non-Maori must figure out how to acquire te reo Maori without possessing it. It might help to return to our idea of two countries overlapping in time and space - New Zealand and Aotearoa. Honouring Te Tiriti then asks those of us who live in New Zealand to honour what happens in another country, Aotearoa.

We would never say, for example, that we have claims over what happens in China, nor that because we speak Chinese we have some special insight or claim over China or Chinese people. Adopting a similar stance with respect to te reo Maori as the native language of Aotearoa will bring us closer to being able to respect its right to have natural emergence through whakapapa.

For us, even though we converse with each other every day in te reo Maori, one of us speaks Maori and the other doesn't.

• Brian Tweed and Pania Te Maro are married. Brian is a Senior Lecturer at Massey University and Pania is an Associate Professor also at Massey University.
• First published in The Conversation. Republished with permission.

Fortunately, New Zealanders of all people have a solution right under their noses. In referring to God, we can take sexual distinctions right out of the equation by adopting the Maori words. Read more

And white New Zealanders are looking to Maori language and culture to help them make sense of their own cultural identity. Read more

A team from Bible Society New Zealand has been reformatting the Maori Bible for a new generation of Maori speakers.

The current translation, first published in 1952, has been enhanced to make it more readable (the actual Bible text remains unchanged).

The addition of macrons will be particularly useful for second-language speakers, to help them better understand the text.

Along with macrons, the entire Bible has been reformatted into paragraphs, replacing the King James style in which each verse begins on a new line.

"This task is much more difficult than it sounds, especially when it comes to books like the Psalms," Stephen Pattemore, Bible Society's translation services director, said.

"Paragraphing brings a much more familiar look and feel to the text for today's readers, who are likely to encounter paragraphs in almost everything they read."

Work has also begun on producing a new translation of the Maori Bible.

Having received a receiving a mandate from key Maori denominational leaders in 2009, the first steps will be taken next month with a meeting of Maori church leaders and Bible Society representatives.

The journey will be along one. It is expected to take 13 to 20 years to complete, with the first two years spent planning the direction.

This significant project will be the largest translation task Bible Society has undertaken in New Zealand since the last revision of the Maori Bible was published in 1952.

Source

• ENS
• The Bible Society
• Newswire.co.nz
• Image: Epworth Books

This has been described by Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori as perhaps one of the most significant Maori language initiatives by a corporate entity since the Maori language was made an official language in 1987.

Maori Language Week was also marked in different ways in each of the dioceses. In Wellington, staff at the Catholic Centre were encouraged to make a special effort this week use te reo Maori. Suggestions included

• Using Maori phone greetings
• Learning ways of addressing groups and individuals
• Using Maori phrases in letters and other written correspondence,
• Learning the and correct pronunciation of common words

A free te reo Maori class was offered at lunch time and information was provided on other classes available around Wellington. Prayer resources were provided and all staff members were invited to attend Maori Masses this weekend. They were also given information about local events marking Maori Language Week and there were resources such as posters, stickers and national anthem words available at the centre.

The Maori Language Commission have chosen "Manaakitanga" as the theme for Maori Language Week 2011.

"At its core manaakitanga is about how we make people feel welcome when they are in our company, and how we give regard to and care for others when hosting visitors", says chief executive, Glenis Philip-Barbara.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Communications NZCBC
• Countdown
• Image: Tangatawhenua.com