A Shake Up In Māori Politics

Surprised to hear about the resignation of Pita Sharples, co-leader of Te Tōrangapū Māori or the Māori Party in New Zealand and a stalwart indigenous rights’ activist since the 1970s. This is especially sad as it comes in Māori Language Week, a celebration of native culture that Dr. Sharples and his generation of Māori politicians were central in the establishment of. It seems that the Māori Party is in something of a crisis following its parliamentary support for the centre-right National Party and is facing a challenge from a rising generation of more radical Māori groups such as Hone Harawira’s Mana.

One of the nastier aspects of Sharples’ resignation and the disarray of Māori politics in general is the gloating found in some of New Zealand’s news and entertainment media where many make little effort to hide their distaste for the indigenous communities of the nation.

Meanwhile a prominent Auckland academic has scoffed at suggestions that obligatory Māori language classes should be introduced into all schools in New Zealand. However, despite the successes in the revival of the language the logic of exposing the wider population to the indigenous tongue of the country in a friendly, educational setting seems overwhelming.

Just a final note of pride that our own TG4 along with Māori Television was a founding member in 2008 of the World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network (WITBN). As Ruth Lysaght writes in her introduction to her 2010 thesis “Teanga & Tikanga: A Comparative Study of National Broadcasting in a Minority Language on Māori Television and Teilifís na Gaeilge”:

“Teilifís na Gaeilge (TG4) and Māori Television are unique amongst minority language television broadcasters in  their position as national indigenous channels. Since their launch (TG4 in 1996 and Māori Television in 2004), after decades of campaigns, there has been a blossoming of the image of the minoritised language for both speakers and non-speakers. Relationships between state ideology and the national indigenous language have led to a situation where a minority language television service broadcasts to the entire nation. Two strands are considered here: how the indigenous language interacts with television, resulting in change for both, and how relationships between a linguistic minority and the national majority may be developed and re-imagined via an indigenous national television broadcaster. This study focuses specifically on language use on screen and on set, and the effect these practices have on the image of the language, including how minority language television may speak to non-fluent people who nonetheless feel an affinity with the language and its culture, and who wish to be ‘refamiliarised’ or reconnected with it.

Combining interviews, observation and analysis, as well as considering the political and cultural context of TG4 and Māori Television, this comparative study contributes to the opening up of a new area for Minority Language Media (MLM) research, namely the area of National Indigenous Minority Language Media. The history of language shift in Ireland and New Zealand helps to explain the unusual relationship many people (particularly non-fluent speakers) have with their minoritised indigenous language today. Outlining the development of indigenous national language television in Ireland and New Zealand, and investigating how the challenges posed by using a minority language in national broadcasting are tackled by Māori Television and TG4, this thesis explores the position of the indigenous national language broadcaster in a public service mould. Obliged to ‘talk out’ to the nation, whilst also ‘talking in’ to fluent-speaking communities, both television services have engaged creatively with issues of representation. Their inventive ‘twisting’ of conventional genres and production practices show the effects on television of an alternative language and different cultural norms.

Māori Television and TG4 demonstrate that a minority language broadcaster does not have to appeal solely to minority language speakers. The success of the stations in attracting people from ‘outside’ indicates their international scope, and can serve as a model for the work, possibilities and challenges facing other minority language media outlets in a contemporary context. The inventive ways by which the more traditional elements of language and culture are translated to the television medium also show the many possibilities when the indigenous language is given a space in which to breathe and live according to its own creative potential.”