Maori language total immersion course... sink or swim

Tu Tangata, Issue 30, 1 July 1986, Page 18

Maori language total immersion course... sink or swim

E KORE e ngaro te kakano i ruia mai i Rangiatea. He whakatauki na te Raukawa Trustees i tuku atu ki nga iwi ote motu i runga i te kaupapa hei whakatupuranga mo te tau rua mano. Tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora ano tatou katoa.

The Raukawa Trustees have set about staging a major revival of the maori language and I believe they are winning. As a student in te reo, I attended the sixteenth language immersion course run by the trustees at the beginning of this year. My purpose was to evaluate the course curriculum and feed this information back to the trustees. The language wananga were started by Raukawa in 1979 in response to a major decline in native speakers throughout their rohe. Raukawa joined with Ngati Toarangatira and Te Atiawa to form the trustees in 1936. Three wananga are held each year catering for differing levels with preference being given first to students of Te Wananga o Raukawa, (the university), then members of the tribal confederation, and other tribal areas and then pakeha. The main feature of these wananga is the banning of the speaking of english for the whole week of the course. Most of the wananga are held on rural marae because of this. Course director Rangi

Nicholson said it’s easier and less distracting to be isolated from the pervading influence of english found in urban areas. But the sixteenth was held on Raukawa marae, right in the heart of Otaki, and this said Rangi was an experiment also to test the kaupapa. This introduction the twenty or students heard in english on the Sunday beginning of the course. Following on from the powhiri, the kaupapa was laid out before us, in english said Rangi, so that no-one would misunderstand. He suggested that some would be almost meditative for the first couple of days in their new-found language limbo, but that we should all be supportive and patient while sticking to the rule of no english. Our kaumatua were introduced, nga koroua: Te Korouna Whakamoe and Tukawekai Kereama and nga kuia: Rangiamohia Parata and Rongokino Hekenui. They were to be our main tutors while several of the rangatahi from Te Wananga o Raukawa were to assist. Mere Poipoi, a tutor in maori at Victoria University and

a longtime supporter of the wananga, also tutored. After such a daunting introduction, our week of te reo maori anake could only make a quiet start. If you the reader find it strange that I should be telling you about a maori language course in the english language, don’t. For one thing I picked up spoken skills that haven’t reached down to my typing fingers yet. For another, I found my biggest problem was thinking Maori first and foremost. The temptation for a second language learner like me is to think in your first language and then translate across. I meditated. And learned many ways of asking questions in maori; hea aha i pera ai, me penei? The wananga was structured to allow a variety of work ranging from learning waiata tawhito to korero about the paipera. Each wahanga was around an hour long with breaks signalled by the tangi of the pere. More about that later. The sessions with Te Korouna Whakamoe were the most enjoyable to me because it was a pleasure to listen to the music of his reo. Most times I attend hui I am working and it sometimes takes the fun out of it by having to write down what speakers are saying whether or not it makes sense.

He was also very patient with us learners, encouraging us with words like, “ka piki te matauranga, ka mohio. A kaore e mohio ana, a me patai, me patai, he aha i pena ai?”

I think he was daunting to some, who preferred to lay back in the whare tupuna where the sessions were held, and not show their ignorance by a dumb question. For my part I felt he was just warming up when the bell would go. It also usually took us students a while to get into the session. There is an added point of natural reticence on the part of Maori youth to question their kaumatua outright about why such and such a practice takes place. My upbringing was anything but traditional and rural, but even I held back from some areas. Of course my reo wasn’t adequate to convey what I really wanted to question, but perhaps that will come at a later hui when I have the confidence.

Learning waiata tawhito with Rangiamohia, Rongokino and Tukawekai was another pleasure. The pressure was off to make yourself understood in maori and for me it was plain sailing to immerse myself in the wairua of the tupuna kaitito, their thoughts and dreams.

That doesn’t mean I was able to memorise the lines, but it felt good taking part in waiata that have been handed down through the ages. I must say that the kuia and koroua were extremely patient with us, especially when we forgot lines or the rangi. For future wananga I would like to see more waiata tawhito taught perhaps in the early morning or late at night at a time of less distraction. I think the waiata and the kaumatua who can pass them on are too precious for us not to be more serious about this.

Kai time was a serious time also for some of us, with not much korero a waha but plenty of kai a waha. Raukawa did us proud with nga hua o ta ratou rohe, kanga, pipi, paua, mereni me era atu kinaki.

We were each alotted a work group to help on the marae with the wharekai, kihini and nga wharepaku. This got us together talking about the work with necessity proving the mother of invention many a time. I mean when your mates have shut you in the freezer, you soon find the words to let them know where you are and what degree of makariri you are. Also the absence of helpmates when it’s your group’s turn to set out one thousand knives and forks soon encourages speech. “Kei hea aku hoa o mua, hah! Ka ngaro te katoa.”

Afternoons saw a two hour break which I used to go swimming at the beach and the river. The maori language flowed much more smoothly then as we first cadged a ride, “he waka tau, a, kia ora e hoa”.

Then we progressed to finding out where there was a wahi pai mo te kaukau. And of course on the way we had the sights pointed out by the locals,

“ara kei reira te wananga o Raukawa, he pai ne ra?”. As one friend said, “koinei te wa tuatahi kua ruku au mo nga pipi”. That was on account of the tide being high and the pipi being low under the sand. Karakia took place each evening after the meal with several of us students being asked to take parts of the service. I found this very satisfying, being able to worship my God in the native tongue He gave my people. It was also a chance for us to see the purpose in having an ecumenical response for people of differing

religions. The presence of my friend, Father John Palmer, from the Catholic Maori Mission, only served to show the workability of this kawa. One night we had karakia in the beautiful carved church of Rangiatea. I never got tired of listening to Te Korouna Whakamoe with his little eulogies based on the whakapapa of the tupuna of both the Maori and pakeha world. In the church Rangiatea it was particularly relevant that he spoke about the whakatauki, te kakano i ruia mai i Rangiatea, the seed scattered and sown from

the Maori homeland, Rangiatea. He likened our growth in speaking the maori language to seeds being sent forth from Rangiatea to take root in the whenua of Aotearoa.

It was a rich diet of korero that we got, that was leavened by our fellow students as we swapped songs, along with contacts and places of gossip. In fact it was here that the sticking to the ban on english really helped. By encouraging each other with aroha, we all made real progress. Some of us may have known many more words, but we had to be encouraged to use them in conversation.

Thus the structured sessions like whakawhitiwhiti korero were needed to make us respond spontaneously to conversation. Only then could we find out what phrases we had difficulty with, and work to correct them.

The widely differing levels that some students had on coming to the wananga meant the need for arranging of groupings. Some students whose competence was known beforehand to the committee through submitted work were put in a higher grouping. It was explained to them that the committee felt these students would be able to meet that challenge. A middle level grouping and a less adventuresome grouping took care of the remainder. I felt although some students were known to the committee through previous hui or through having carried out the preparatory lessons, many could have done with more practice in speak-

ing the reo before coming. Because of this lack of competence in conversational maori, they lacked confidence and understanding and so couldn’t take full advantage of the resources of the wananga. How much this takes place is a decision of the committee, and where they draw the line with requirements to take part in the wananga is also up to them. The presence of pakeha is also a policy decision of the committee. They believe that although the language resource is sparse, pakeha must share in

the responsibility for the revival of the reo. The committee hopes that pakeha who take the plunge will be committed who take the plunge wdl be committed enough to spread the kaupapa of the wananga in their own areas of influence wananga in their own areas of influence be that in the education field or in the be that in the education held or in the home The committee are also hard-headed enough to see that just as it was pakeha dominance that contributed to the demise of the maori language, pakeha education is vital in its revival, Enquiries to: Te Wananga o Raukawa C Rangi Nicholson Box 119, Otaki.

“ A / e can’t afford to re-invent the wheel, ” VV says Rangi Nicholson. He's referring to efforts by the Raukawa Trustees to restore maori language fluency within the area from Bulls to Porirua. The main thrust are the week-long language immersion hui held three times a year. The Trustees acknowledge that language survival depends on a national response and commitment. They see their immersion hui as just one of the efforts being made around the country. There’s already been a good response from other tribal areas, partly because of kaumatua and tutors from other areas taking part in the hui, but also because of students who've taken the good word back to their marae outside of the rohe of Raukawa. Takitimu and Te Arawa are two tribal areas looking at running their own immersion hui. Rangi’s keen that the people not see the immersion hui as exclusive, nor see himself as the guru. He admits that coming into the co-ordina-

ting role some years back, there were many unknowns which he has worked at whittling down. However a few still remain like the venue, the tutors or the students. He says the only thing you can do is let the people know what is happening. At times this means a backup venue is needed. It's like the uncertainty over which particular kaumatua will turn up. The trustees have a list of around fifty tutors made up of kuia, koroua and trained teachers. There is a range of teaching styles from the stand-up-and-deliver style of Te Korouna Whakamoe, to the systematic approach of university tutor, Mere Poipoi. As well there is the on-going training the trainees, kaiawhina, who attend the immersion hui to help the tutors. “We will be re-tilling the soil in coming years, when we won’t have the kaumatua we are blessed with now. But we will have their recordings and video. “We are building up the kaiwhina to develop fuller teaching roles for that future.”