About one third of the people spoke to said they had experienced some form of punishment at school for speaking Maori. This had stopped some of them from using Maori but it did not seem to have made many of them decide not to encourage their own children to speak Maori. On the contrary, the majority of people wanted their children to learn and many also wanted to learn or relearn the language themselves. A few people told us they had been strapped at school for speaking Maori but at the same time had been made to learn action songs."
Te Moana-ā-Toi | Bay of Plenty | Tauranga City | 1970-79 | Story is by tangata whenua
Comments