Karakia rings in Maori Television as founders steel themselves for flak

By RENEE KIRIONA

The pioneers of Maori Television allowed themselves a sigh of relief yesterday that the channel has gone to air but they expect it will come in for critical scrutiny in the months ahead.

At dawn, a humming silence seized the channel's Newmarket headquarters before the first karakia (prayer) rang out to begin a largely trouble-free launch.

A crowd of 2000 witnessed a hopeful moment in the history of Maori-language broadcasting.

Looking a little more relaxed after the launch, the channel's chairman, Wayne Walden, said he expected it would come under the microscope in the coming months.

"It must not be forgotten that the establishment of this television service was not a greenfields project and we will work even harder to ensure it stands up to that scrutiny."

Mr Walden did not have to wait too long for criticism.

"The preservation of te reo Maori is highly important but I am not convinced that a $45 million television station is the answer," said the National Party's Maori affairs spokesman, Gerry Brownlee.

"Why is the Government happy for kids to sit at home watching Maori cartoons, funded out of the public purse, when we have a serious shortage of Maori-language teachers in our schools and when Maori children's literature is virtually non-existent?"

But Prime Minister Helen Clark, who unveiled the station's plaque, said she was not surprised at the anti-Maori Television comments.

"Using television was just one way to keep languages alive," she said, and this had already been proven in Britain, where a television channel had helped to save the Welsh language.

Huirangi Waikerepuru, who in the 1980s led the Maori language claim to the Waitangi Tribunal that resulted in Maori being recognised as an official language of New Zealand, was thankful that he lived to see the day the channel went to air.

"We have brought the dream on the horizon closer to us and now we need to elevate them [Maori broadcasters] to their full potential."

Maori rights campaigner Annette Sykes, who was one of the lawyers for the Maori language claim, said the launching of the channel was "the result of a 30-year struggle and I don't want to see the dream turn into a nightmare".

"I also hope that as beautiful as our people are Maori Television does not become another dollywood."

The daily news bulletin Te Kaea will be delivered in te reo Maori. There are no immediate plans to give it English subtitles.