Māori language within the whānau

This section of the report looks at the use of te reo Māori at a whānau level. It describes the use of the language by the Māori speaking population in the home and in the community.

Language use is an important aspect in understanding the health of the language. International research on language revitalisation suggests that for minority languages like Māori to survive, intergenerational transmission is required. Intergenerational transmission is the passing on of Māori language skills from generation to generation through regular and normal use within families.⁶

Māori households

Census 2006 data shows that the Māori population of Te Tairāwhiti/Tākitimu lives within 22,635 households. Many people, 59%, live in households comprising of one whānau with adults and children in the household⁷. A further 35% live in households with adults only, either as couples, sole occupants, or groups of adults (e.g. flatmates).⁸ Around 7% of Māori live in households comprising multiple whānau.⁹

Households with Māori speakers

Table 8 shows where the Māori speaking population is located within household groupings. As shown, 40% of Māori households have at least one Māori speaker (9,027 of the total 22,635 Māori households). This means that within the remaining 60% (13,608) of Māori households there is no possibility of Māori language use in normal household life.

Table 8: Māori speakers in households

Source: Census 2006.

Census 2006 data also shows the percentage of Māori speakers who live with other speakers of the Māori language. This is important because in order to maintain the language through regular household use there needs to be at least two people able to converse in Māori within a household. The data shows that for Te Tairāwhiti/Tākitimu, 47% of Māori speakers do not live with other speakers of the Māori language, meaning there is no opportunity for interactive Māori language use in the normal home environment.

Household Compositions

Another way to look for potential opportunities for the intergenerational transmission of the Māori language is looking at households where there are younger and older speakers of the Māori language.¹⁰

Census 2006 data shows that in households with adults and children/young people, 40% (11,148) of adults can speak Māori. Or from another perspective, 32% (7,638) of children or dependants live in a household with at least one adult speaker of Māori. This indicates some children and young people may have an opportunity to acquire the Māori language through intergenerational transmission from parents or other adults.

Table 9 brings together data for whānau households (but excludes adult only households), to show those households with Māori speakers aged 18 and over, and those under 18.

Table 9: Mix of adult and child speakers of te reo Māori in households

Source: Census 2006.

As shown in Table 9, 10% of these households have both children/young people and adults who are able to speak Māori. Also shown is the finding that in 20% of these households only adults can speak Māori. This may reflect the fact that the adults able to speak the Māori language are not primary care-givers (perhaps grandparents), or the fact that other adults (perhaps spouses) do not speak Māori, making it difficult to use the Māori language in household activities. A further finding in relation to household composition is that 8% of households have children/young people able to speak Māori, but no adults in the household who are able to reciprocate. This shows that some children/young people are learning the Māori language outside of their normal home environment, through formal education. How education provision supports acquisition of the Māori language is discussed in another section of this report.