Maori language

Press, 16 April 1986, Page 20

Maori language

Sir,—Rather than discussing the “pitfalls of making Maori an official language,” Robin Mitchell’s article (April 15) serves more as a dismissal of Maori language and of the Maori as a unique people. True to all oppressors (particularly white male ones), Robin Mitchell has treated the subject in an academic, self-removed manner. In doing so he cannot feel the anguish that loss of one’s language and culture bring. This feeling incorporates a sense of loss of cultural identity and loss of dignity as a person. From the viewpoint of one whose language and culture remain paramount, such feelings are a mystery and consequently dismissed as irrelevant and insignificant. Why is it that the oppressors continually write history according to their own eyes? Perhaps that is a question even the oppressor does not wish to face.—Yours, etc., BRUCE MEDER. April 15, 1986.

Sir, —Robin Mitchell’s article, “Room for only one language ...” (April 15), moves me to tears of anger and of grief at the racism rampant in this country.Following his line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, it becomes obvious that if a single language is so essential to a nation’s wellbeing, then English should never have been imposed on the Maori people. Its introduction surely did bring the divisions and tensions described by Mr Mitchell. Te Reo Maori is this country’s language. The proposed patronising “granting of official status” to it should rather be seen as the removal of our racist prohibition

on it and its restoration to its rightful place. The blind conviction of the superiority of English is the cornerstone of institutional racism in this country. Equally nonsensical is Mitchell’s claim that recognition of the Maori language will impair knowledge of English.—Yours, etc., JANE SEVERN. April 15, 1986.