Davis Kelvin: Te Pire mō Te Reo Māori / Māori Language Bill — Recommittal In CommitteeCWH Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDavis Kelvin: Te Pire mō Te Reo Māori / Māori Language Bill — Recommittal In CommitteeCWH Third Reading[Sitting date: 14 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10619. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KELVIN DAVIS (Labour—Te Tai Tokerau):I tipu ake ahau i roto i tētahi whare reo kotahi kore e taea tōku pāpā rāua ko tōku māmā ki te kōrero i Te Reo Māori nā reira waimarie ana mātou ko ōku tuākana taku tuahine i whai mātou tētahi kaiako tino rangatira tino tohunga rawa ko Charles Berryman tōna ingoa te teina o Mānu Paul nāna mātou i whakaakongia ki te kōrero i tō tātou Reo. I tīmata mātou i te tīmatanga o te haikura reo kotahi e 5 tau kua pahure ake nei kotahi te mahi i pahurengia ahau i roto i te seventh form arā ko Te Reo Māori. Ahakoa te 51 paihēneti taku tatau i roto i te whakamātautau kua pāhorengiakētia ahau. Koia te mea nui!Nā reira kei te mōhio ahau ngā piki me ngā heke o tēnei mea te ako i Te Reo Māori. E mōhio ana ahau i te whakamā ki te eke ki runga i tō mātou marae me te kore mōhio he aha ngā kōrero e whakahaerengia ki runga i te marae. I rongo hoki ahau te whakamā o tōku pāpā e eke ana i te marae kore i te mōhio me pēhea ia. Ko te mea tino nui rawa atu pouri rawa atu ko ōna mātua tōku koroua rāua ko taku kuia tino matatau rawa rāua ki Te Reo. Ko rāua ētahi i pōhēhē ko Te Reo Pākehā te reo mō te ao ēngari waimarie ana ahau kia whiwhi i tētahi mōhioranga i āianei ki te kōrero i tō tātou Reo.I te tīmatanga o te pānuitanga tuarua i tīmata a Marama Fox me āna kupu “Hareruia hareruia!” mō tēnei pire. Nāku i mea atu ka whakataihoa ake ahau i aku hareruia kia kite rā anō i ngā hua o tēnei pire. Kua mutu te wāhanga māmā noa iho arā ko te tuhinga o tēnei pire. I nāianei ko ngā mahi pakeke ngā mahi uaua kia whai hua tēnei pire mā o tātou tamariki kōhungahunga rangatahi me ngā hapori Māori me kī ēhara mō ngā hapori Māori anahē ēngari mō ngā hapori whānui kei roto i Aotearoa ahakoa Māori Pākehā a wai atu rānei. Mehemea ka ora tō tātou Reo me kōrero te katoa.Mehemea kei roto i tēnei pire ngā kupu “He taonga Te Reo Māori” he taonga mō Te Motu whānui. Ko tātou ngā kaitiaki kāre e kore ēngari mō tātou katoa o Te Motu tēnei taonga Te Reo Māori i te mea nā Te Minita a Hekia i mea mai “Me kōrero Te Reo ahakoa kei hea ahakoa ki a wai!”. E pai ana tēnā kōrero ēngari mēnā e hiahia ana ahau te haere ki roto i te toa kei roto o Kaitāia ki te hokohoko āku mea mēnā kore e taea e te tangata kei tua o te counter ki te kōrero Māori mai ki ahau e kore e taea e au te kōrero i Te Reo i ngā wāhi katoa. Nā reira koia tāku e akiaki ana i Te Motu whānui kia tautokongia tēnei pire.E tika ana he mea pai kua tuhia te pire ki roto i ngā reo e rua Te Reo Māori me Te Pākehā ā he mana tō Te Reo Māori ki runga ake i tō Te Reo Pākehā mehemea he raru i waenganui i te whakapākehātanga. E pai ana tēnā! He mea tika ēngari koia tāku i kī ai e pai ana wēnā āhuatanga ēngari ki te kore tātou e kite wētahi hua kei roto i ngā tau e tū mai nei he maumau taima! He maumau taima te tuhia tēnei ki roto i Te Reo Māori mehemea i roto i te 30 tau e kore e taea e ō tātou tamariki te pānuihia tēnei ture.E tautoko ana ahau i ngā kōrero o te tuahine nei a Nanaia e pā ana ki te whakapāhatanga. Tētahi o ngā kōrero a Te Karauna mō te kore whakapāha ki te iwi Māori mō te wēputanga ō ō tātou tamariki kei roto i ngā kura ko ngā pire Tiriti ka kāhorengia. Kei roto i aua pire he whakapāhatanga ēngari i te ata nei e toru ngā pire Tiriti tā Tauranga Moana tā Ngāti Pūkenga tā Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa. I roto i aua pire e toru ngā whakapāhatanga mō te muru whenua te raupatu whenua wērā āhuatanga katoa ēngari horekau he whakapāhatanga kei roto i aua pire mo te wēputanga o ngā tamariki kei roto i ngā kura me te raruraru kua pā nei ki tō tātou Reo. Nā reira koia tāku e kī ana mehemea e pai ana ki te whakaae i wēpuhia ngā tamariki i roto i ngā kura e pai ana ki te whakapāha mō aua hara o ngā kaiako o te ture. Nā te ture i whakamanahia. I pai kia wēpuhia ngā tamariki e kōrero Māori ana.[I grew up in a monolingual household. Neither my father nor my mother could speak Māori; however my older brothers my sister and I were fortunate to have an excellent teacher an absolute expert by the name of Charles Berryman the younger brother of Mānu Paul who taught us to speak our language. We began monolingual at the start of high school; 5 years later the only subject I passed in the seventh form was Māori language. Although I got only 51 percent in the exam I passed it. That was the main thing!So I am aware of the ups and downs in regard to learning the Māori language. I know about being embarrassed when I go on to our marae and do not know what is being said in the talk during the proceedings. I also felt the embarrassment of my father in that situation in terms of not knowing and not knowing how to deal with it. The most significant and saddest thing about it was that his parents—my grandfather and grandmother—both of themwere absolutely fluent and native speakers of the language. They were two of those who mistakenly thought the English language was the language of the world but I was lucky to get some understanding now about speaking our language.At the start of the second reading Marama Fox began with the words “Hallelujah hallelujah!” in regard to this bill. I said to her that I would be cautious about my hallelujah until I see what the outcomes of this bill are. The easy part is done—in other words writing the bill. The more onerous and more arduous task now is to ensure that this bill realises outcomes for our children preschoolers youth and Māori communities—let us say not just for Māori communities either but for the wider communities in New Zealand be they Māori Pākehā or whoever!If our language is to survive everyone must speak it. If the words “The Māori language is a treasure” are in this bill then it is a treasure for the nation at large. Without a doubt we are the guardians; however this treasurethe Māori languageis for all of us the nation because Minister Hekia said to us “Speak the language regardless oftheplace and to whomever!”. It is fine to say that but if I want to go into a shop in Kaitāia to purchase things for me and the person on the other side of the counter cannot speak Māori to me then I am unable to speak the language everywhere. So that is why I am urging the nation to support this bill.It is a good thing indeed that the bill has been written in two languages Māori and English and that the Māori language version is above the English version should there be any discrepancies in the translation. That is fine! That is appropriate. However as I keep harping on those situations are all right but if we do not see any benefits in the coming years ahead it would be a waste of time! Writing this in the Māori language if in 30 years’ time our children are unable to read this bill willhave been a sheer waste of time.I support the contributions by this sister colleague Nanaia relating to the apology. One of the statements the Crown made as to why there was no apology to Māoridom for the corporal punishment administered to our children in schools was that the Treaty claims bills that have been passed already have an apology in them. But this morning there were three Treaty bills belonging to Tauranga Moana Ngāti Pūkenga and Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa. In each of those three bills were apologies for land confiscation land taken by force all those kinds of things; however there was no apology in those bills about corporal punishment administered to children in schools and the problem concerning our language. So that is why I have been saying that it is fine to admit that children were punished in schools for speaking Māori and to apologise for sins committed by the teachers and the law. The law enacted it. It wasacceptedthat children wereto bepunished for speaking Māori.]I will just translate some of the things I have said because I really want to make myself clear. It is great that this bill is reaching its final stages. In the second reading Marama Fox started off her speech with: “Hallelujah hallelujah! It’s about time this has happened.” I agree. The big thing is that I am going to hold off my hallelujahs until I start to see the results of this bill because every 3 years the number of speakers declines by 1 percent. So in the next 3 years—so by 2019—we do not just expect to reverse that 1 percent decline; we actually want to see a 1 percent growth. In fact we want to see more than 1 percent growth in the number of speakers of Te Reo Māori.During the select committee process and the Committee stage also I spoke about the purpose of the bill not being explicit enough because I joined the Māori Affairs Committee right at the end of this process and the thing that jumped out at me from the bill was that it did not have the purpose of the bill being that we would increase the number of speakers of Te Reo Māori and that we would increase their fluency. I believe that should have been front and centre in the purpose of this bill. It was added. It is about the third clause down in the purpose clause and under a couple of other subclauses—clause 3(3)(b). I think that that should be right front and centre because if we are not going to grow the number of Māori speakers and if we are not going to increase the fluency of Māori speakers then what is this bill going to achieve? If we are going to see a 1 percent decline every 3 years in the number of Māori speakers then in 30 years’ time we are basically going to have nobody left who can understand and read this bill and that to me is more important than it actually being written in Māori.There is a lot of work to do. The easy part has been completed. We have got this bill and now we have to move on into the future. We are going to have the Maihi Māori and the Maihi Karauna. I say that the Maihi Māori must increase the number of contexts within communities where Te Reo Māori can be spoken. It needs to be able to support homes. Yes schools—we have got to be careful that we do not put the burden or the onus of ensuring the survival of Te Reo Māori on schools. I think that is really unfair. I think that this is something that all corners of our community all people in our communities need to support us with because if I want to walk into a shop in Kaitāia to buy something and the person over the counter there cannot speak Māori then I cannot use Māori in all the contexts that I could use English in.I think I said it before in a debate on this bill that people take for granted that we can just speak English wherever and whenever we want but for the Māori who wants to speak Māori we cannot actually do that. We do not have the numbers of contexts any more in our communities where we can speak Māori to whomever whenever. We need communities to get in behind and we need Pākehā to get in behind us because in this bill it does say that Te Reo Māori is a taonga. It is a taonga for the whole country not just for us. We are the kaitiaki but it is a taonga for everybody.Just one last story: when I was in Cardiff I remember standing on the train station and looking up. There was this sign written in Welsh. It said “Platform 9” in English underneath and in Welsh it said something that looked like “Cwllcllcwll”—the Welsh language is all “C”s and “L”s. I just thought: “Well is that not wonderful? Here in Wales just on the train station this is just a little sign and it is bilingual. Why do we not have that sort of thing in New Zealand?”.That is what we need. That is the sort of thing that this bill needs to ensure that we can see Māori everywhere we can hear Māori everywhere and we can speak Māori anywhere and to anyone at any time. Thank you.