Many Maori living in Australia are struggling to maintain te reo Maori there, recent Victoria University research shows.
According to the research compiled by senior associate of Victoria University’s Institute of Policy Studies Paul Hamer, one in six Maori now live in Australia but struggle to maintain the language there.
“Six per cent of Maori in Australia speak te reo in the home, but Maori don’t all tend to live in the same neighbourhoods there—one of the factors that makes it difficult to maintain the language.
“Maori migrants who speak te reo are perhaps more in danger of losing their language than other immigrant groups because Maori fit so easily into Australian workplaces and communities, and they also have a high intermarriage rate,” Hamer said.
Melissa Thorne (Rangitane/Ngati Kahungunu) has been living in Perth for 15 years and says her knowledge of te reo Maori also deteriorated since she left New Zealand.
However, she does try to make her children aware of their culture and teaches them some basic phrases.
“Perth has yearly culture festivals that I love going to and really makes me feel at home. It’s just sad that because I live in Aussie my kids won’t get the same experiences I did with our culture,” Thorne says.
Hamer’s research found that many speakers of Maori, including some Maori language teachers, are leaving New Zealand, often in search of higher paid work.
Using Australian census data, he calculates more than 10,000 speakers of te reo moved to Australia between 1986 and 2006.