Maori Language Week this year will have a food theme. Sort of ironic when you consider that a vast chunk will be eaten into the estimated $250 million that the government spends on Te Reo initiatives. Additional funding will be generously topped up by socially responsible councils.
Government websites, television, radio and newspapers will be regularly dropping-in Te Reo catch-phrases. Children along with their parents will be spending a lot of time on the internet answering Maori language worksheets from school. Valuable collateral such as Te Reo branded colour booklets, recyclable shopping bags, temporary tattoos, posters, pens, balloons, t-shirts and more will be given away to all and sundry.
So what are the outcomes since you and I started funding Te Reo initiatives? Well, the numbers of fluent speakers of Maori have plummeted from 70,000 in the 1970s to just 18,000 today.
Not surprisingly, questions are being raised about the efficiency of the Government's estimated $250 million spend.
So to recap, the government has spent millions to promote Maori language by intervention and coercion and one of the unintended consequences has been that the language has declined.
We hope for the sake of the Maori language that government and councils immediately withdraw funding to enable the free market to distribute resource more effectively to those that really want it.
That would be a shame, because we really wanted one of those cool Te Reo branded recyclable shopping bags...
