Half the adults stated that they had been punished as children for speaking Maori at school. This did not put most of them off teaching the language to their children, especially to the older ones. A third of them also said that they preferred Māori for everyday use, and would speak it whenever they met Maori people. Some people wanted Maori to be used in schools, but it was the local dialect they wanted taught rather than that of another area. As some parents were teaching Maori to their children at home, and many other children heard Maori spoken daily, the language needed to be taught in schools so as to build on the skills these children had already developed."
Te Moana-ā-Toi | Bay of Plenty | Whakatāne | 1970-79 | Story is by tangata whenua
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