The Māori language revival is a movement to promote, reinforce and strengthen the speaking of the Māori language. Primarily in New Zealand, but also in centres with large numbers of New Zealand migrants (such as London and Melbourne), the movement aims to increase the use of Māori in the home, in education, government and business. The movement is part of a broader Māori Renaissance.

Until World War II (1939–1945) most Māori people spoke Māori as their first language but by the 1980s fewer than 20% of Māori spoke the language well enough to be classed as native speakers. The causes of the decline included the switch from using Māori to using English compulsory in schools and increasing urbanisation, which disconnected younger generations from their extended families and in particular their grandparents, who traditionally played a large part in family life. Even many of those people no longer spoke Māori in the home. As a result, many Māori children failed to learn their ancestral language, and generations of non-Māori-speaking Māori emerged.

Māori leaders began to recognize the dangers of the loss of their language and initiated Māori-language recovery-programs such as the Kōhanga Reo movement, which from 1982 immersed infants in Māori from infancy to school age. There followed in the later 1980s the founding of the Kura Kaupapa Māori, a primary-school programme in Māori.

Māori Language Week[link]

A government-sponsored initiative, te wiki o te reo Māori has been celebrated since 1975 and is intended to encourage New Zealanders to learn or at least support the Māori.

Māori Language Act and Māori Language Commission[link]

The Māori Language Act 1987^[1] gave Te Reo Māori (the Māori language) official language status, and gave speakers a right to use it in legal settings such as in court. It also established the Māori Language Commission (initially called Te Komihana Mo Te Reo Māori but later renamed Te Taura Whiri I Te Reo Māori) to promote the language and provide advice on it.

Kōhanga reo[link]

Kōhanga reo (Māori: literally "language nest") are Māori immersion kindergartens.

The first Kōhanga reo was founded in Wainuiomata in 1982, when there were fears that the Māori language was dying out.^[2] The success of the kōhanga reo programme is such that they have been followed by primary schools and secondary schools (Kura Kaupapa Māori) where Māori is the primary language of instruction. The role of Maori language in education in New Zealand is enshrined in the Education Act 1989.^[3]

The success of the concept has led to kōhanga reo in New Zealand that instruct in other Pacific languages, e.g. Fijian, Rarotongan, Samoan, and Tongan and other countries adopting a similar concept. A notable example being Pūnana Leo established in Hawaii to revitalize the indigenous Hawaiian language.^{[citation needed]}

Politics[link]

The Māori Party election campaigns often feature increased roles for reo Māori, in the 2011 it wanted to require all secondary schools offer Māori language as an option to every student.^[4]

Kura Kaupapa Māori[link]

Kura Kaupapa Māori are Māori immersion primary schools.

See also[link]

• Gaelic revival - Irish language revival

References[link]

1. ^ [Maori Language Act 1987 http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1987/0176/latest/DLM124116.html]
2. ^ Ihaka, James (1 June 2009). "It's all go for Ngati Porou stalwart". The New Zealand Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10575737. Retrieved 19 October 2011. 
3. ^ [Education Act 1989 http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1989/0080/latest/DLM175959.html]
4. ^ "Maori Party wants te reo available to all". nzherald.co.nz. 2011 [last update]. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/te-reo-maori/news/article.cfm?c_id=336&objectid=10764982. Retrieved 25 November 2011. "The Maori Party wants to make te reo 'compulsorily available' in schools by 2015 but students wouldn't be compelled to take the subject." 

External links[link]

• http://www.kohanga.ac.nz/
• http://www.ahapunanaleo.org/
• New Zealand Open Education Act 1989

The Honourable David Cunliffe MP
David Cunliffe at the NZ Open Source Awards, 2007 17 October
Minister of Communications and Information Technology
In office 2002 – 19 November 2008
Preceded by	Paul Swain
Succeeded by	Steven Joyce
37th Minister of Health
In office 31 October 2007 – 19 November 2008
Preceded by	Pete Hodgson
Succeeded by	Tony Ryall
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Titirangi
In office 1999 – 2002
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for New Lynn
Incumbent
Assumed office 2002
Majority	4,025
Personal details
Born	1963 (age 48–49) Auckland, New Zealand
Political party	Labour
Profession	Business consultant
Religion	Anglican

David Richard Cunliffe^[1] (born 1963) is a New Zealand politician. He is a member of the Labour Party, and the sitting member of parliament for New Lynn, West Auckland. He served as the Minister of Health and Minister for Communications and Information Technology for the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand from October 2007 until November 2008.^[2] After the 2008 general election defeat of the Labour Party, and the resignation of Helen Clark as the party leader, Cunliffe was appointed to be the party's Finance Spokesman. This is considered to be the third highest ranking within the party after leader and deputy leader. Cunliffe has been touted as a future leader of the Labour party, and party insiders have suggested he seriously considered challenging Goff in the aftermath of the 2008 electoral defeat. Speculation of a leadership challenge again arose during the June 2010 expenses scandal and again after the 'Cartergate' affair.^[3]

Early life[link]

Cunliffe studied politics at University of Otago before working first as a diplomat and then as a business consultant. In 1994 and 1995, he was a Fulbright Scholar and Kennedy Memorial Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School, earning a Master of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School in 1995.

Member of Parliament[link]

He was first elected to Parliament in the 1999 elections, standing as the Labour candidate for the Titirangi seat. Since the 2002 election he has represented the seat of New Lynn. At the 2005 elections, Cunliffe was returned with 18,087 votes (8,000 more than his nearest opponent) or 55% of the electorate vote .^[4] He retained his seat in the 2008 general election, but his majority was cut to 4,025.^[5]

Cabinet minister[link]

Cunliffe was a member of the Cabinet of New Zealand as the Minister of Health, and Minister for Communications and Information Technology in the Fifth Labour Government until Labour lost the election in 2008.

David Cunliffe closing the 2005 Auckland BioBlitz

In the 2002–2005 Parliament he held the ICT portfolios and was Associate Minister of Finance and Revenue, after previously serving as Parliamentary Private Secretary for Finance and Commerce.

During his first term (1999–2002) he served as Chair of the Commerce Select Committee, and sat on the Finance and Expenditure and Regulations Review select committees.

In 2006, in his previous role as Immigration Minister, he announced a major review of the Immigration Act 1987.^[6] As Minister for Communications and Information Technology he announced local loop unbundling in the telecommunications sector.^[7]

In May 2006 Cunliffe was referred to the Securities Commission by the NZX for prematurely exposing information on Telecom's future dividend plans.^[8] This caused a drop in Telecom's stock price.

On 30 June 2008 Cunliffe was conferred the title of Honorary Fellow of the NZCS (HFNZCS) by the New Zealand Computer Society, the professional body of the ICT profession in recognition of his significant contribution to the ICT sector.^[9][10]

District Health Board controversy[link]

This section requires expansion.

In February 2008, as the Minister of Health, Cunliffe dismissed the Hawke's Bay District Health Board over political, monetary and conflict of interest troubles.^[11] Napier Mayor Barbara Arnott and a number of members of the district voiced opposition to Cunliffe's move as many of the board members were democratically elected.^[12] Following the release of a Health Ministry-commissioned independent report into the matter, Cunliffe referred to the board as "nasty little nest of self-perpetuating provincial elites".^[13]

Opposition[link]

While in opposition of the Fifth National Government, Cunliffe was made Labour's spokesman of Finance, shadowing National's Finance Minister, Bill English. He ran for the party leadership in 2011 alongside Nanaia Mahuta, but lost to David Shearer. He is currently the Labour Spokesperson for Economic Development and Associate Finance Spokesperson.^[14]

Political views[link]

Cunliffe is a supporter of a New Zealand republic. During the Address-In-Reply debate on 4 September 2002, Cunliffe said: "A New Zealand where we journey together towards maturity as a nation, and to the Commonwealth republic I personally believe we will become before the Treaty turns 200".^[15]

Further reading[link]

• ICT leaders election forum 2005 [videorecording: DVD]. Wellington, [N.Z.]: InternetNZ. c.2005 

This was a discussion forum about information technology policy – National's Maurice Williamson is also a participant.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: David Cunliffe

• Cunliffe's official website
• Parliamentary page
• 3news.co.nz interview with David Cunliffe ahead of 2011 election