5 July 2011

Media Release

Ten years of language funding in the Waikato – Hauraki region

The release today of regional statistics that have been accumulated over a 10 year period shows Mā Te Reo is having a significant impact on community driven language revitalisation efforts in the Waikato – Hauraki region.

The Mā Te Reo fund was established in 2001 to provide financial support to projects that contribute to community based Māori language revitalisation. This initiative places responsibility on iwi, hapū, whānau, Māori communities and Māori organisations to create and develop innovative solutions to what is a national crisis and these factsheets show Māori have responded to that challenge.

“The fact sheets tell the story of the impact of that investment on language revitalisation”, says Chief Executive, Glenis Philip Barbara.

The Mā Te Reo fund supported 79 projects in the Waikato – Hauraki region. The key findings for the region included:
• 126 Māori language revitalisation projects received Mā Te Reo funding over a ten year period from 2001 – 2010;
• Over $1.9 million was provided by the Mā Te Reo fund for community driven te reo Māori revitalisation initiatives from 2001 – 2010;
• Almost half of the Mā Te Reo investment supported wānanga reo projects;
• 97% of all funded projects actively promoted te reo Māori;
• 55% of all funded projects observed an increase in confidence to speak te reo Māori; and
• 25% of all funded projects reported the learning and use of te reo Māori was strengthened within domains where te reo Māori use was not frequent or familiar.

“Perhaps the most powerful insight gleaned from the information contained across all regional factsheets is that the funding made available by Mā Te Reo has enabled initiatives and projects that are driven by Māori. The ability to be able to not just diagnose language concerns but also resolve them at a local level is a clearly articulated ambition and evidently one that Mā Te Reo meets”

“The net result of this activity – language gain and cultural strength which are the cornerstones for successful Māori development,” says Glenis Philip-Barbara.

ENDS

Waikato__Fact_Sheet.pdf

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