The Education Ministry’s decision not to reprint At the Marae is farcical, writes Wyn Drabble.
Wyn Drabble is a teacher of English, writer, public speaker and musician. He is based in Hawke’s Bay.
Well, you could have knocked me down with the gentle swish of a kahu kiwi.
You could have knocked me face-down into my kai.
I’m talking about the Education Ministry’s decision not to reprint At the Marae because it has too many Māori words in it.
It’s a children’s book about a marae for heaven’s sake. And the tally of Māori words is six. Ono.
Perhaps they could just rename it. Wiremu Goes to the Sacred Communal Place That Serves Religious and Social Purposes might work though I admit it doesn’t pack a punch.
And Wiremu at the Community Centre fails to communicate the cultural importance, the gravitas associated with a marae.
It follows that, at secondary school level, they’re going to have to sanitise reproduction books for science classes too. I’ve seen some of them. They use too many explicit words. Come close now because I’m going to type some examples very quietly.
Sorry, that was so quiet you couldn’t even hear them. Let’s run with a sanitised version: the female has a harbour and the male has a ship with very valuable cargo to unload. Perfect.
The life cycle of a frog will need to undergo some changes too. While there are no Māori words needed to explain the process, there is definitely amphibian smut involved.
And given that secondary qualifications are about to get a major shake-up, we might as well use the opportunity to sanitise other subjects too.
Spanish could be improved by removing all the Spanish words from the course, for example. The textbook I perused was full of Spanish vocabulary so I hope you can imagine how difficult that would prove for young people.
Of course the Ministry has a defence; they say At the Marae does not fit the sequence children are now taught to decode words using the structured literacy approach, it is not “aligned with the principles of structured literacy”.
Naturally enough this explanation has enraged Te Akatea, the Māori Principals’ Association.
But what the book does do well is encourage the incorporation of Māori words into everyday English. At least some of the six Māori words would be widely understood in most communities today whereas when I was at school I don’t think I knew any Māori words and very few people pronounced place names correctly.
These days things are different. Now that we quite rightly embrace the cultural importance of the Māori language, it is commonly dropped into everyday English conversation by Kiwis.
There are sound precedents for this. Who can English thank for baguette, beret, chauffeur, cul-de-sac, film noir, reservoir and soufflé?
Oui, the French, of course.
Spanish has contributed aficionado, burrito, patio and tango, und German has given us dachshund, frankfurter, kindergarten and schadenfreude.
And those are just a small sample from each language.
English is only enriched by such borrowings. The same applies to Māori words and phrases. To give a very simple example, kia ora should be an everyday part of Kiwi conversation in English.
The six words (too many) are marae, tikanga, karanga, koro, karakia and kai. In the book young readers are guided by Miss Lee and Nan. They are introduced to tikanga, welcomed with karanga, they listen to the koro speak, stand for karakia and share kai.
Kiwis who don’t know at least some of those words must have been living with their head buried under an ostrich.
Alas, I suppose it should all come as no surprise in a country where “free” education costs a very healthy sum and “free” health care doesn’t work.
In the matter of At the Marae the Ministry is clearly pointing its waka up tūtae creek.
Without a paddle.