The establishment of a Maori Curriculum Unit

The establishment of a Maori Curriculum Unit is a matter of increasing urgency. The projected appointment of another curriculum officer to make a total of two will not allow for the provision of the curriculum materials needed (for example, tapes, film strips, films, pictures, booklets) to back up the policy. We remind you that it is now two years since we first offered Maori language and literature tapes to the schools through the National Film Library. These tapes are not yet available because the Education Department had no-one qualified in the Curriculum Unit or the Film Library to work on the project. Since that first offer in 1972 not a single Maori language tape to assist the teaching of Maori has been produced by the Department in spite of widespread and repeated requests for them for schools.

This year in desperation we offered to provide the labour to do the job. Facilities were not available at the Department so now the work is to be done at VUW. Thus we will have written the scripts, recorded the material and copied and catalogued it for your Department. Our limited resources of time and money were further strained by the fact that you declined to support our application to purchase tax exempted recording equipment that was to be used to supply your own Department with tapes. The lack of a [unclear: singleim] or filmstrip on the contemporary Maori situation emphasises that the establishment of the Maori Curriculum Unit is indeed urgent and a matter of the highest priority.

Last year our proposal for Itinerant Teachers of Maori was rejected by your Department and this year in the Education Gazettes of July/August we were amazed to see a position advertised for the appointment of a German teacher whose duties were similar to those we envisage an Itinerant Teacher of Maori would have. Mr Minister the demand for Maori and the shortage of teachers justifies such appointments.

A survey was recently undertaken by the society in an attempt to pinpoint schools' priorities and needs in running Maoritanga/language courses. It represents a reasonable cross section of all Wellington schools plus all the schools teaching Maori throughout the country. While not all the replies have been received as yet, a pattern is emerging and shows that there is a real need for all of the following.

These four types of assistance were requested as being the most needed and of highest priority. When most of the expected replies are in we will be happy to forward the final results to you for your Department to action.

(Finally in this section we wish to impress upon you the tragedy it would be if Maori became a 'dead language' under a Labour administration. By dead language we mean the now frightening prospect as revealed by Richard Benton (NZCER) and others, that the supply of native speakers is seriously threatened by the pressure of English—in the homes, schools and media.)

In Maori speaking areas, Maori speaking children should receive instruction per medium of Maori for at least the first three years and after that instruction should be bilingual. Such a policy could be brought in overnight as it concerns only Maori and not the Pakeha majority at this stage.

As pointed out in numerous Unesco papers it is the right of these children to receive such instruction. To delay action until the NZCER survey is completed is to put off until tomorrow what we all know should have been done yesterday.

We raised this matter with you last year and as yet have had no reply to our submissions.

To you both we wish to state the vital role that the media, especially television and radio has to play in this whole field and to express our deepest concern at the lack of real preparation for expansion into these fields in the near future. It is essential that a substantial proportion of TV and radio time be allocated to Maori language before the new broadcasting units are firmly established. Once underway it may be too late to introduce such measures.

Though we made extensive submissions on both the Broadcasting Bill and the Maori Affairs Bill concerning these matters it appears that little real notice will be taken of them. We therefore ask that you both co-ordinate your efforts to see that every effort is made to gain a place for Maori in the media through Government.

A token Polynesian radio station with coverage confined to the Auckland region is not anywhere near a just allocation to Maori. National coverage on both radio and TV at peak hours on all stations is what is needed if the language is to survive and be a living vital force.

In anticipation of a greater demand for Maori material to be shown on TV we urge that a Maori Language TV Unit be established on similar lines to the National Film Unit with special emphasis on programmes concerning news events, current affairs and children's programmes all of which will be recorded and broadcast in Maori".

In conclusion it is important to ensure that the status of Maori is raised in the eyes of both Maori and Pakeha as it is the status of the language that governs people's desire to learn and speak it. This is well evidenced in all socio-linguistic studies. It is therefore important to ensure the status of the native speaking teachers in that they receive the appropriate certification and salary.

Knowing these matters will receive your full consideration we await your early reply.