Pacific languages fade in New Zealand

By ANGELA GREGORY

A decline in the number of people learning Pacific languages in New Zealand is looming as a serious problem, a new study warns.

New Zealand is home to the largest Polynesian population in the world, but generations born in this country often do not learn their native tongue.

Galumalemana Hunkin-Tuiletufuga, a senior lecturer in Samoan studies at Victoria University, and whose study on Pacific language and identity has just been published in a collection, Tangata O Te Moana Nui, said more bilingual programmes were urgently needed.

The 1996 census figures showed a dramatic language divide between those born in the Islands and those born here.

Sixty-eight per cent of Samoans here could speak Samoan, but of those born in Samoa, 90 per cent retain their language compared to less than half of those born in New Zealand. Among Cook Islanders, only 6 per cent of those born here could speak their language, compared to 48 per cent born in the Cooks.

Other figures include: Niueans (63 per cent born in Niue can speak Niuean, but only 15 per cent of those born here); Tongans (82 per cent compared to 39 per cent); Tokelauans (75 per cent compared to 38 per cent) and Fijians (40 per cent compared to 14.5 per cent).

Mr Hunkin-Tuiletufuga said it was a problem that some Pacific people regarded the retention of their languages as unimportant and this would continue to be used by schools as excuses for not teaching them.

Some Islanders believed their languages got in the way of learning English, so a significant number of first generation, New Zealand-born Pacific children grew up knowing little or nothing of their language.

Mr Hunkin-Tuiletufuga said schools were not adequately supporting Pacific Island children through their languages, which partly accounted for high failure rates. He recommended setting up separate schools or restructuring existing ones to cater for bilingual schooling.

He said all Pacific languages were threatened, but the most at risk were those of the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau, which had big populations in New Zealand.



The Samoan community had recognised the problem in the 1970s and successfully lobbied to get Samoan into the high school curriculum.

The Ministry of Education had promoted early childhood Pacific language nests and bilingual programmes in about a dozen Auckland schools.



Despite his best efforts, the editor of Samoa Post, Tanupo Aukuso, a fluent Samoan speaker, struggles to get his three school-aged children to learn Samoan.

"I even take them back to the Islands for a month every year."

Mr Aukuso said his children understood Samoan but could not speak it, preferring English.



Pacific Islands Affairs Minister Mark Gosche regretted he didn't learn Samoan because his parents had thought English was the way ahead.





"There is pretty clear evidence our children are not succeeding in the numbers they should be because they lack language skills," he said.

He said it had been shown Pacific children who had the opportunity of a bilingual education did better all round.

The Education Ministry's Pacific education manager, Lesieli Tongati'o, said the use and teaching of Pacific Island languages in schools were important.

But problems included insufficient resources, the number of Pacific languages, a shortage of bilingual teachers and varying levels of fluency and support in homes.