Parekura Horomia Launch of Sign Language Week, Grand Hall, Parliament Buildings, Wellington

It is an absolute pleasure for me to be here with you all this evening to help celebrate our 3rd official language and to launch New Zealand Sign Language Week. Deafness is very common among Māori. There is probably not a marae in the country where one would not find a deaf Māori person and it is very likely too that every Māori knows of a mother, father, son, daughter, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, or grandparent who is deaf. I recently read a statistic by a Victoria University’s senior deaf lecturer Rachel McKee which said that 39 percent of people who have been diagnosed as deaf under the age of 19 were Māori and we are just over 14 percent of the total population of New Zealand. So it is crucial for the Māori community, both deaf and hearing, to embrace Māori sign language and that is why I am delighted to be here this evening - to support an initiative that supports that goal.

In a very short while we will see the New Zealand Sign Language website and I am pleased to say that my ministry Te Puni Kōkiri provided financial support to help ensure that Māori sign language be an integral part of the website.

If Māori sign language has prestige and relevance attached to it then the Māori community will embrace it and ensure that Māori have access to the services and benefits of the Deaf Association but can also have some influence on the outcomes of the services. The 2006 Census showed us that just over 24,000 people speak NZ Sign Language and about one quarter speak all three of our official languages. That’s just over 6,000 New Zealanders who speak English, Māori and NZ Sign Language. That is a huge pool of potential qualified interpreters. Accessing trilingual translators is often an issue for Māori deaf people so it would be a wonderful outcome, if the website sparked the desire amongst those 6,000 trilingual people to become qualified translators in Māori and NZ Sign language. Māori whānau can help here too and learn sign language. We know that NZ sign language is viewed by many deaf Māori as a way for them to access their language and culture and as with many solutions, it can begin at home. I look forward to the day too when we see sign language used more frequently across marae – wouldn’t that be great? We have already seen Māori take the lead in television with the Māori Television Service gardening programme - Kiwi Maara. As I understand it, Kiwi Maara is still the only television programme in the three languages –reo Māori, English, and sign language. New Zealand sign language is unique, having evolved over some time. I understand that it has developed many new signs that are found in this country only and that includes signs that express Māori concepts. In the last three decades we have come a long way in our journey towards equal participation for Deaf New Zealanders. Just on a year ago NZ Sign Language became an official language and just last month we saw the launch of NZ Sign Language in the New Zealand Curriculum.

I am proud to be the Minister of Māori Affairs in a government that has achieved this for Deaf New Zealanders and by virtue of that fact, for Deaf Māori. Yes there is still more that can be done. Over time, I wish for NZ Sign Language Week, the same successes that we see each year during Māori Language Week and that is more awareness, more acceptance, and a greater willingness to “Give it a go!” Kia ora.

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