Talking the Te Reo talk

With the Government having committed $176 million for a Maori television channel, BRENDAN O'FLAHERTY reports on some of the Pakeha who have taken to this country's second official language.

He looks like the archetypal first Pakeha visitor - lean from a meagre diet and as blue-eyed and fair-skinned as any Englishman sailing under the royal ensign. Yet as soon as 20-year-old James Barnes opens his mouth you notice something distinctly unusual.

Not only is Barnes fully fluent in Te Reo, his English has all the nuances and inflections of a Billy T stereotype.

"Me and my brother are probably the only Pakeha people in the world to be privileged and blessed with the taonga [treasures] of Reo and tikanga," he says.

Barnes and his twin brother Alex are unusual for Pakeha, in having an education immersed in Maori language and custom. "We went to one of the first kohanga reo set up in the 1980s, at Te Whetu o te Rangi marae in Tauranga.

"My dad was working for the Labour Department with work schemes at local marae and was also involved in the hikoi [march] for the treaty. He was keen for us to learn Maori tikanga."

Primary education continued through a kura kaupapa Maori language model and Barnes was in the bilingual unit at Mt Maunganui College. Now he is halfway through teacher training at the Maori kaupapa-based Te Puna Wananga of the Auckland College of Education.

Just how common it is for Pakeha to have a working grasp of the Maori language is a moot point. Returns from the 1996 census show 116,000 people of Maori ancestry speak English and Maori, out of a total of 154,000 residents claiming to speak Maori. This would suggest 38,000 non-Maori speak the language. If that is indeed so, they seem remarkably quiet.

Sadly, Maori is not spoken as a language of everyday exchange anywhere within greater Auckland - outside classrooms.

"The language is very threatened," says Auckland University Maori Studies Department linguist Margaret Mutu. It is still the first language of marae, but in general Maori is spoken only in the homes of a small group of very dedicated parents.

"At least one generation has been lost to the language and today the bulk of teachers are second- language speakers," says Mutu.

The paradox of learning Maori is that in the only country where it is spoken, it is still easier to learn most other languages, simply because native speakers of those languages are more accessible. Pakeha learning Maori know the frustration of finding people to speak with.

First-year university student Eve Fifield, aged 19, looks forward to the day when it will be easier to converse with Maori in Te Reo.

Last year Fifield gained an A bursary, achieving 66 per cent in Maori. After five years learning the language at Diocesan School for Girls, and the sole member of her seventh form to do so, Fifield still comes up against bemused Pakeha wondering why she has bothered.

"A lot of my friends' parents don't see any point in taking Maori and people often reiterate their parents' opinions."

So what is the motivation for a white, middle-class, eastern suburbs girl to learn Maori? "I'm interested in the history of my country and was encouraged by my mum who was working in health services at the Orakei marae when I chose Maori in third form."

Fifield admits to feeling the glow from doing something a bit different. "It's unusual for Pakeha to study Maori and that gives me a special feeling. People are always interested when they find out I've done Maori."

Language is seen as the cornerstone of a culture, and never more so than with Maori. "If more people learned Maori there would be better race relations, more understanding and less ignorance," says Fifield.

Her family experienced first-hand how the Maori world operates after her father died in a diving accident in the Bay of Islands early last year. "We had a tangi at home when Dad died. I was grateful for the support from the many Maori who came."

Not all Pakeha can attest to that feeling. Maori educator and broadcaster Jim Perry i hosts a weekly talkback session on the urban Maori authorities' Radio Watea, 603AM.

"We do get callers who are antagonistic to Pakeha and they have a right to voice their opinion. I don't have a problem with Pakeha trying to learn the language. The language is for everyone," says Perry.

There is a certain ambivalence from some Maori towards Pakeha learning Te Reo. Often the criticism is veiled, inarticulate and anonymous. But veteran Maori rights campaigner and lawyer Moana Jackson articulated it in Mana magazine, the self-proclaimed "Maori magazine for all New Zealanders".

In an article titled, What do Maori Want? Jackson wrote: "Some of our people are spending a lot of time and energy teaching Pakeha to speak the Reo. And that makes me wonder how many of our mokopuna [grandchildren] are being deprived of that time and effort."

Barnes sees the language as a vehicle for greater understanding. "The language is part of a life-changing philosophy. It opens Pakeha eyes to the injustice of this land and in general towards all indigenous people. I haven't felt any hostility."

And neither has Fifield. "But it is always what people ask about," she says.

Perry says Pakeha should not fear learning Maori. "They've got to question themselves about what it is they've got to fear about learning the language of this land. Language can be a threat only when you don't understand it."

Traditionally, missionaries were among the first foreigners to learn indigenous languages and New Zealand was no exception. The Williams' dynasty has its name enshrined in the eponymous Maori dictionary.

One of today's leading Maori language educators, Catholic priest Mick Ryan, also has his name on a Maori dictionary and language instruction texts.

Originally from England, Pa Ryan, as he is known as (Pa being the Maori form of address to a priest), has spent nearly 50 years learning and absorbing Maori language and custom.

When the Pope visited New Zealand in 1986 it was Ryan who taught him the Maori prayers and greetings. "The Pope's Maori was pretty good I thought, better than a lot of New Zealand priests."

At 73, Ryan still tutors Maori, primarily at Hato Petera College. "It is oddly satisfying to be teaching the sons and daughters of my old pupils from the 60s and early 70s," he says.

Ryan is using his time in the classroom to produce additional material for a new edition of Modern Maori, his Maori language course first published in 1980.

Two Maori speakers who came to New Zealand with English already as their second language believe there are less palatable reasons for the small number of Maori-speaking Pakeha.

"There is a racist element as well," says Dutchman Frans Steens. "It's seen by some [Pakeha] as a barbaric language or as absolutely useless and limited in today's education. I think they are missing out on a lot.

"Knowing Maori language and culture has given me more of a feeling of the land and a bigger understanding of people and of different thought processes."

Steens arrived in 1958 and, living in high density Maori-speaking areas in Bay of Plenty and marrying into the culture, quickly picked up the language. Today Steens teaches Maori and material technology at Berkley Middle School in Hamilton.

Colonial attitudes towards Maori culture still exist, says Flemish-speaking Belgian Robert Peeters. "A lot of the time this is probably unconscious, but it is certainly there, which is very sad."

Peeters' interest in Maori culture dates from his arrival in New Zealand in 1983 with his Belgian wife Annemie. "I've always been interested in people and cultures and the history and uniqueness of a place."

Taking a year off from teaching technology and graphics at Taumarunui High School, where the Maori roll approaches 50 per cent, Peeters spent 1999 in Te Tohu Mohiotanga - "the sign of knowledge" - a Maori language immersion programme run through the Taumarunui outpost of Taranaki Polytechnic.

Initial apprehension about being the only Pakeha on the course quickly evaporated. "It was a worry for me at first, but there was no need for that at all. You adapt to a Maori way of teaching and learning. You are accepted as long as you show you want to fit in, still being yourself of course."

Peeters promotes his experience as a blueprint for the country. "Learning Maori language at school will make society a lot more healthy as far as relations between the two cultures is concerned.

"Growing up in Belgium it's normal for us to be bilingual. Learning languages not only improves cultural understanding but is also a major step in mental development. New Zealanders are missing out on something by not learning languages."

Prevailing attitudes in mainstream society still hark back to the colonising mentality, says linguist Mutu. "If Pakeha view the Maori language not as a threat but as a birthright, it will lead them to understand another culture.

"The first thing to achieve is to stop denigrating the language in society. Pakeha New Zealand still needs to climb over that barrier to value the language."