My Account
The best young speakers of Te Reo Maori gathered in Dunedin recently for the annual Ngā Manu Kōrero 2010 National Secondary School Speech Contests. Among the 56 finalists was Mahurangi College Year 10 student, Ruahei Demant, 15, of Leigh, who finished second overall in the junior section and brought home the coveted Dame Whina Cooper Trophy for the best performance by a girl in the junior section. Maori language has come a long way from the days when Ruahei’s grandmother was punished for speaking it in the classroom. She explains ….
Singing is a big part of Maori culture and when we were little we would ask Gran to sing us a song. She would only get through a few lines and then would say … “I’ve forgotten the rest”. Because she wasn’t allowed to speak Maori at school and she couldn’t speak English, she didn’t really speak much at all. My brothers and sisters and I grew up hearing stories of how our grandparents were whipped if they dared to speak Maori and how we should be thankful we were growing up in these times and how lucky we were to be able to learn our culture. My mum Vikki speaks fluent Maori but not my Dad. Because of what Gran went through, she decided not to teach him Maori.
I’ve got five brothers and sisters and we grew up on the East Cape, speaking Maori as a first language. We went to Te Kura Mana Maori o Maraenui school, near Opotoki, where all the lessons are in Maori. There were very few Pakeha in the community. There were about 80 students and we thought it was such a big school. Now I’m at Mahurangi College and the school roll is about 1200. My family moved to Leigh, three years ago. Dad’s a cray fisherman and he came to fish up here. Mum put us into Mahurangi Christian School initially, which helped a lot in the transition into an English-speaking system. The school is small and was very understanding of where we had come from. Now I’m in Year 10 and its fine.
I think I am the first student from Mahurangi College to attend Manu Korero at a national level. One of the weirdest things to get used to when we moved here was the number of young Maori who don’t know their pepeha which is the way you introduce yourself in Maori, by telling where you come from. Where I grew-up, kids as young as eight can jump up and tell you their pepeha straightaway. During Maori language week recently, we had a special night to celebrate Maori students at the college. There are about 120 students who have some Maori heritage but only about 20 actually identify themselves as Maori. Mahurangi offers NCEA Maori at Levels 1, 2 and 3 but there aren’t many students. From when I was a child, I learned my whakapapa (family tree) and the ties we have to all the different tribes. Language and culture go hand in hand, and I feel like saying to these young Maori …”go home to your marae and learn your stuff”.
Entering the Manu Korero contest was really my Mum’s idea. It freaked me out the first time I had to stand in front of a group of strangers and speak, but then you get a response from the audience and its pretty cool. For the Manu Korero the speech has to be 12 minutes long and although you are speaking to a panel of five judges, there are hundreds in the audience including many kaumata and kuia (respected elders). My cousin wrote my speech, which was based on a Maori proverb. Roughly translated it means ‘to dive the dive of a shag’. It was very clever the way he explained the proverb, and then went back over pre-European Maori history and then covered contemporary issues such as oil drilling off East Cape, land rights and foreshore and seabed legislation. The message was about the heights and depths that people go to achieve their goals. Oratory in Maori is traditionally more dominated by men – my cousin Tamati Waaka has won the senior Manu Korero four times in a row, which I think is a bit of a record. But in the competitions 45-year history, I think girls have only won it three times in the junior section and four times in the senior. We are at a bit of a disadvantage because tradition dictates that we can’t move around like the boys or use props as they do, so for us it all comes down to the delivery. I don’t have any plans for any future competitions. Someone suggested that I enter the Lions Youth Speechmaker competition, but I’m not sure about that.
My sister Kiritapu and I play touch rugby for Mahurangi, Harbour, Sharks and in the Whangteau competition. We also made the NZ under 15 girls team and I would like to be selected for the under 17 team next year. I like sport and also play netball, rugby 7s, basketball and soccer. I also participate in the school kapahaka where Mum’s the tutor. I have no idea what I want to do after school – people ask me but I truly don’t have a clue.
I do miss the East Cape – I guess it’s just the comfort of being home and having family around. You do strike racism in NZ, but it’s mostly out of ignorance. Sometimes you hear it in class when we talk about NZ history and some people don’t even care about the Maori history pre-European. I personally really appreciate when people at least try to pronounce Maori correctly, even if they get it wrong. I literally grew-up with a poi in my hand so for me it’s second-nature. But when you haven’t had that sort of upbringing, it’s sometimes hard to get the pronunciation right and I admire people – both Maori and non-Maori speakers – when they persevere. If young Maori don’t learn to speak their own language, it will be lost and I think that would be sad because it’s a big part of who we are. It’s never too late to learn – Julian Wilcox is considered to be a master and he didn’t start learning until he was in his 20s. My sister and I are lucky at home because Mum continues to speak it all the time, and especially when she’s growling at us. I don’t intend to have kids, but if I do they will definitely learn to speak Maori.
Revival
Te reo Maori has had its ups and downs over the past 200 years. As more English speakers arrived in New Zealand, the Maori language was increasingly confined to Maori communities. By the mid-20th century there were concerns that the language was dying out. Major initiatives launched from the 1980s have brought about a revival of te reo. In the early 21st century, over 130,000 people of Maori ethnicity could speak and understand te reo, one of the three official languages of New Zealand (the others are English and New Zealand Sign Language).
