September 15, 2017
Historic voices share reo stories
To mark Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori, the New Zealand Council for Educational Research has put research from the first sociolinguistic survey of te reo Maori in New Zealand up on the internet, including a set of 143 booklets that report on each community involved.
The research was done between 1973 and 1979 by a team led Richard and Nena Benton.
Until now, these booklets have been difficult to access.
Fluent te reo speakers went into the homes of almost 6500 whanau of over 30,000 people to research the state of te reo Maori in the 1970s.
The Benton survey, as it came to be known, demonstrated the perilous state of te reo Maori and showed the expectation the language would survive because of its use in traditional villages was not realistic.
Individuals are not identified in the reports, but the reports document widespread evidence Maori students were punished for speaking te reo Maori at school and many people noted that they did not teach te reo Maori to their children because they didn’t want them to go through the same punishment.
See the reports on the NZCER website:
http://www.nzcer.org.nz/survey-language-use-m-ori-households-and-communities-1973-1978-reports-participants
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