Indigenous Language Loss

"Thank you for inviting me to speak at the launch of Maori Language week. It is a great pleasure to be standing here on Maori land, in a country where the Maori language is relatively strong. I understand that approximately 25 percent of Maori speak the Maori language. I think that is a significant achievement in the light of various past policies that have negatively impacted on the maintenance of the Maori language.

Like Australia, here in New Zealand, policies to alienate indigenous lands, successive assimilation policies, and the migration policies of the 19th and 20th Centuries have all taken a toll on our languages.

Your country has taken some positive steps to revitalise Maori language since the 1970s. There have been Maori language programs in schools and the establishment of a Maori radio network. Having said this, I also know that the relatively strong position of the Maori language should not be taken for granted. It needs continuing support, and importantly, it needs to be supported by the will of the New Zealand people.

Unfortunately languages are in peril across the globe. The 2005 Australian National Indigenous Languages Survey tells us that at least 3000 of the world's 6000 languages are losing speakers and are endangered, and at least 800 are very close to extinction. The disappearance of languages is rapid and accelerating and UNESCO estimates that about 90 per cent of the world's languages may be lost by the end of the twenty-first century."