5 July 2011

Media Release

Ten years of language funding in Te Tai Rāwhiti

The release today of regional statistics that have been accumulated over a 10 year period shows Mā Te Reo is having a significant impact on community driven language revitalisation efforts in Te Tai Rāwhiti.

The Mā Te Reo fund was established in 2001 to provide financial support to projects that contribute to community based Māori language revitalisation. This initiative places responsibility on iwi, hapū, whānau, Māori communities and Māori organisations to create and develop innovative solutions to what is a national crisis and these factsheets show Māori have responded to that challenge.

“The fact sheets tell the story of the impact of that investment on language revitalisation”, says Chief Executive, Glenis Philip Barbara.

The Mā Te Reo fund supported 79 projects in Te Tai Rāwhiti. The key findings for the region included:
• 174 Māori language revitalisation projects received Mā Te Reo funding over a ten year period from 2001 – 2010;
• Over $2.7 million was provided by the Mā Te Reo fund for community driven te reo Māori revitalisation initiatives from 2001 – 2010;
• Wānanga reo represented 57% of the regions overall Mā Te Reo investment;
• 25% of all funded projects indicate that their projects prioritise iwi dialect as part of their te reo Māori delivery;
• 54% of all funded projects express a commitment to learning and using te reo Māori beyond their project;
• 56% of all funded projects signal activity towards pursuing further opportunities to continue their learning and use of te reo Māori; and
• 27% of all funded projects report that their te reo Māori initiatives prioritise tikanga Māori as part of their te reo Māori delivery.

“Perhaps the most powerful insight gleaned from the information contained across all regional factsheets is that the funding made available by Mā Te Reo has enabled initiatives and projects that are driven by Maori. The ability to be able to not just diagnose language concerns but also resolve them at a local level is a clearly articulated ambition and evidently one that Mā Te Reo meets”

“The net result of this activity – language gain and cultural strength which are the cornerstones for successful Māori development,” says Glenis Philip-Barbara.

ENDS

MTR_Fact_Sheet_2011_Te_Tai_Rwhiti_d10.pdf

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