Official languages

English, Te Reo Māori, New Zealand Sign Language

Te Reo Māori

Ko te reo te manawa pou o te Māori,
Ko te ihi te waimanawa o te tangata,
Ko te roimata, ko te hūpē te waiaroha.
Ko tōku nui, tōku wehi, tōku whakatiketike, tōku reo.

Te reo Māori is indigenous to Aotearoa New Zealand. It is a taonga recognised under the Treaty of Waitangi, a primary source of our nation’s self-knowledge and identity, and an official language. By understanding and using te reo Māori, New Zealanders become more aware of the role played by the indigenous language and culture in defining and asserting our point of difference in the wider world.

Ko te reo Māori te kākahu o te whakaaro,
te huarahi i te ao tūroa.

By learning te reo and becoming increasingly familiar with tikanga, Māori students strengthen their identities, while non-Māori journey towards shared cultural understandings. All who learn te reo Māori help to secure its future as a living, dynamic, and rich language. As they learn, they come to appreciate that diversity is a key to unity.

Te reo Māori underpins Māori cultural development and supports Māori social and economic development in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally. Understanding te reo Māori stretches learners cognitively, enabling them to think in different ways and preparing them for leadership.

By learning te reo Māori, students are able to:

• participate with understanding and confidence in situations where te reo and tikanga Māori predominate and to integrate language and cultural understandings into their lives
• strengthen Aotearoa New Zealand’s identity in the world
• broaden their entrepreneurial and employment options to include work in an ever-increasing range of social, legal, educational, business, and professional settings.

Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro, nōna te ngahere.
Ko te manu e kai ana i te mātauranga, nōna te ao.
Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Māori.

New Zealand Sign Language

Unique to New Zealand, NZSL is a complete visual-gestural language with its own grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. Like other signed languages, it uses the hands, the body, and facial expressions (including lip patterns) to express meaning and the eyes to perceive meaning. Like any language, it is capable of communicating an infinite number of ideas. Face-to-face interaction is particularly important in NZSL because it has no written form. There are, however, notation systems that are used for recording signs on paper.

NZSL is primarily used by members of New Zealand’s Deaf community and those affiliated in some way with this community, for example, hearing people who have Deaf relatives or people (such as interpreters) who work with Deaf people.

For many Deaf people, NZSL is essential for effective daily communication and interactions. New Zealand needs more people who are fluent users of the language and who have an appreciation of Deaf culture. By learning NZSL, hearing students are able to communicate with their Deaf peers and participate in the Deaf community. Skilled communicators may find career opportunities that involve working with Deaf people. As Deaf people come to have a wider circle to converse with, our society becomes more inclusive.

Learning NZSL can be a positive and enriching experience for both deaf and hearing people of any age. By learning NZSL, Deaf children and hearing children of Deaf parents gain a sense of belonging in the Deaf community.

For hearing students who wish to learn a second or subsequent language, NZSL may be offered as another option alongside the spoken languages offered by their school. In such cases, schools need to consult with their Deaf communities and ensure that, wherever possible, students have access to Deaf role models with NZSL as their first language. Learners need to have opportunities for sustained conversations with other users of NZSL, and they need to be exposed to language role models in a variety of situations.

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