The public gathered in strength outside Parliament on September 14 to witness the commemoration of the historic day, 50 years ago, when a group of Maori activists presented a petition calling for te reo Maori to be declared an official language of New Zealand.
Children clambered atop statues and streetlights for a better view of the event, which was marked by speeches delivered by Minister of Finance Grant Robertson, standing in for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who was away in the UK, as well as kaumatua [ Maori elders] drawn from among the original petitioners.
The descendants of some of those petitioners were present on the occasion. There was Minister of Maori Development Willie Jackson, nephew of Syd Jackson who founded the Nga Tamatoa, the core activist group that submitted the petition in 1972.
Also present to mark the occasion was Rawiri Paratene, father of Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson, who was one of the original petitioners.
Jackson thanked his uncle’s generation for stepping up to save the Maori language. The minister noted that they belonged to a generation who were some of the first to grow up without their indigenous language.
Jackson added: “We must akiaki [encourage] our people. We must bring them along. There is real language trauma and sometimes people need time to heal. Kei te pai [It’s fine]
“If you keep whakahe whakahe [criticising] our people, they may stop speaking Maori.”
Earlier, at a function held at the National Library, Jackson said he was proud to present the government’s view from a Maori perspective in terms of “where we are now.”
Robertson said: “When a strong, determined and revolutionary group of New Zealanders challenged the Crown to do better, they knew that if things didn’t change, te reo Maori would be lost. Because of their actions, your actions, and the actions of others like them, Maori is an official language of this country.”
“These are events that are happening today that those who signed the petition [in 1972] may not have even considered possible at the time. For the changes that they have made to our nation, that you have made to our nation, I am proud and I am grateful,” Robertson added.
Robertson charted the progress made by indigenous Maori in the land of its origin.
“We have the kohanga generation. We have more te reo Maori in the news. We have our children learning te reo in every setting in our educational system. And we have a much greater appreciation and understanding of te reo across Aotearoa. In fact today, throughout Aotearoa, people are learning te reo in record numbers. We can always do more, but the start has been made.”
Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, a young schoolgirl and niece of Hana Te Hemara, who was a 22-year-old activist and a key member of the group that presented the 1972 petition with 30,000 Maori and Pakiha signatories, delivered a stirring speech to round off the proceedings.
Clarke’s speech was followed by a powerful haka and karanga performed by schoolchildren.
Maori was made an official language after Parliament passed the Maori Language Act in 1987.
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