Gestión de las auditorías, o cómo evaluar la realidad

By the 1970s, it had become clear that the Māori language was in serious decline (Benton, 1979). The number of Māori-speaking children arriving at school in 1975, for example, was no more than 5 percent (Waitangi Tribunal, 1986, p. 11/¶3.3.2) and the number of elderly speakers of te reo was dropping rapidly. In response to the dwindling population of Māori language speakers, a Māori language and cultural renaissance began brewing and came to fruition in many forms during the 1970s and 1980s. Māori efforts to revitalise the language began in earnest during this period and the efforts of one particular grassroots movement, Ngā Tamatoa (The Young Warriors), played no small part in drawing attention to Māori language issues and spearheading the inclusion of Māori language and cultural content in schools – a petition with 30,000 signatures was sent to the government in 1972 (Brooking, 1988, p. 191). What followed was a series of events directed at broadening Māori cultural and linguistic domains (e.g., Māori Language Day extended to Māori Language Week), increasing the number of Māori language and cultural learning contexts (e.g., kōhanga

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reo, kura kaupapa, wharekura – see below) and raising the status of te reo Māori (e.g.,

official language status achieved in 1987).

In 1977 (one hundred years after the landmark Education Act 1877 – see above), a significant development took place with the first bilingual school opening in Rūātoki. During this time in the late 1970s, kōhanga reo (language nest/s; pre-school/s) were also being established – without being officially recognised or funded by the government – in marae as well as people’s homes and garages. Soon after, in 1982, the first government-funded kōhanga reo was established in Pukeatua, near Wellington (Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust, 2017), with one hundred more kōhanga

reo opening the following year (Sharp, 1990, p. 189). In 1985, the first kura kaupapa Māori (Māori-medium primary school) opened at Hoani Waititi marae in Auckland

with another five opening within the following five years. Various kura kaupapa around the country, gradually extended into wharekura (Māori-medium secondary schools), so that students could continue their schooling in a Māori language immersion environment (see, for example, Waitangi Tribunal, 2011).

Prior to these developments in the primary and secondary school sectors, Apirana Ngata had in fact campaigned for the inclusion of te reo Māori at tertiary level in 1923. Despite some opposition from the Senate of New Zealand University, te reo Māori was introduced into the university in 1925; the teaching of such courses, however, did not commence until 195119 at the University of Auckland (Walker, 2004, p. 194) and at Victoria University of Wellington in 1967. In 1978, both the University of Waikato and Victoria University introduced Māori Studies Master’s degree programmes, followed by Auckland University in 1979 and the University of Canterbury in 1984 (Mead, 1997, p. 21; Walker, 2004, p. 194). In addition to these developments at different universities, the early 1980s saw the establishment of two of the three officially recognised wānanga: Te Wānanga o Aotearoa which received official government recognition in 1992 (see, for example, Walker, 2004, pp. 349-355); and

Te Wānanga o Raukawa which became officially recognised in 1993 (see, for example,

19 _{As Walker (2004) explains, the reason for the twenty-five year delay – from the teaching/learning}

of te reo being granted to the actual teaching of tertiary reo Māori courses – was due to Ngata’s workload in compiling and “collecting the poetry, songs, chants, laments and lullabies that were in the oral repertoire of Maori women and orators on marae throughout the land” (p. 194) – see, for

13

Walker, 2004, pp. 345-349). The third wānanga, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, which was established in 1992, became registered as a wānanga in 1997 (see, for example, Walker, 2004, pp. 355-357).

In spite of the many achievements in Māori language revitalisation efforts, neither the

Māori Language Act (1987) nor the Māori Language Strategy (Ministry of Māori

Development, 2003) (nor any of the many developments in the teaching/learning of the language) seems to have had any major impact on the deteriorating position of te

reo Māori; while the effects in recent developments from the Māori Language Strategy (Te Puni Kōkiri, 2014), the Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori/Māori Language Act

(2016) and Te Mātāwai20 are too early to be seen. It also remains the case that in spite of efforts in the late 1980s and early 1990s (see Waite, 1992), Aotearoa/New Zealand still has no overarching national language plan that would help to ensure effective co- ordination of Māori language revitalisation efforts and adequate financial resourcing of them. Furthermore, although considerable attention has been paid recently to the encouragement of inter-generational transmission of the language (see, for example, Ormsby-Teki et al., 2011; Te Puni Kōkiri, 2002; Te Puni Kōkiri, 2010; Ministry of Māori Development, 2003), little attention seems to have been paid to ensuring that Māori language teaching and learning programmes, upon which many adults currently rely (often in order to be in a position to transmit the language inter-generationally), are maximally effective. This is where Mead’s (1997) following words are particularly significant with regard to the role of tertiary institutions in the revitalisation of te reo:

I happen to view the need to learn to communicate in Maori quite seriously, and I believe we have an obligation to train speakers of Maori as quickly and as economically as possible. The challenge to the universities is to discover new and more effective ways of teaching Maori and to make these new ways available to every group that requests it. . . .We ought to be able to find ways of transforming the pain of language learning into a joy, because this has a bearing on the survival of Maori. We need to explore new

20 _{Established under Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori/Māori Language Act 2016, Te Mātāwai is an}

organisation that is comprised of thirteen members that have been appointed to spearhead Māori language revitalisation efforts on behalf of Māori in general, but also iwi (Te Puni Kōkiri, 2017).

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techniques of teaching that perhaps make greater use of the marae, so as to reduce as dramatically as we can the time taken to teach a student to become a reasonably competent speaker of Maori. Can we do it in the three years that it takes a student to obtain a bachelor’s degree? Should we design a new degree? Or should we set up a new kind of university that best meets our cultural needs? (p. 29)

1.4 Research approach, aims, questions and methods