Drop in number of NZ-born Samoans who speak the language
Updated
The number of New Zealand-born Samoans who can speak Samoan has dropped, according to figures from the latest census. At the previous census in 2001, 48 per cent could speak the language, but the 2006 figures show that has dropped to 44 per cent. There's a shortage of Samoan language pre-schools, with many parents unable to get their children into them.
Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker:Galumalemana Alfred Hunkin, head of Samoan Studies at New Zealand's Victoria University
HUNKIN: I think I've got to acknowledge the fact that it's dropped and I need to say something about that. I suspect that that's actually the result of having no connection between the resource of the pre-school, the youngsters who are coming out or graduating from pre-schools, but then they find that there is nowhere else to go after that. So there are no classes for example, in primary school level in the main centres where the Samoan community are found, and so that would have I would say quite a big influence in the dropping or the losing again of the language. So you have got a situation where the language has been recognised in New Zealand and there have been provisions for it within the system, like the curriculum and development of programs and included in the schools. But there are still some very important components which are not in place yet within the mainstream system, so we need to actually take care of that and the community is trying to do that right now.
HILL: Well, there is obviously a demand for Samoan language in early childhood and primary school education, because there is such demand for places in language schools?
HUNKIN: Absolutely, and the reason being that parents now are slowly coming around to recognise that the Samoan language has a very important place in the development, in not only their children's sense of identity as being Samoan, but also I think they are beginning to recognise the educational value in that and their identity issues, that these children are also becoming leaders within their bigger community, but also within their own communities and that's the beauty of having bilingual New Zealanders so to speak of Samoan background.
HILL: Well, being bilingual is okay in certain areas, but it does seem to be having a negative affect on the number of New Zealand-born Pacific Islanders that actually speak their native language. It's gone down from 48 to 44 per cent with Samoans, but it's even worse for others. Only 24 per cent of Tokeluans speak Tokeluan, eleven per cent for Niueans, six per cent for Fijian, five per cent for Cook Islanders, Maori. Samoans are actually doing a lot better than other Pacific languages?
HUNKIN: That's right, and I suspect that there's quite a number of reasons for that. I can only say from the Samoan community's point of view, it has recognised that its language would always be under threat in a place, in a country like New Zealand right from the 1960s to 1970's, so it has been alerted that far back and so it's been working for all this period of time to make sure that its language is not lost.
The other communities I think I am not saying that they haven't, but they have come on to they have recognised the problem as well, probably about 10-15 years ago and so it's tried to do the same thing, but of course with the smaller numbers, it's not easy to try and maintain languages within a society such as New Zealand.
HILL: Do you think the Pacific Island language have a future in New Zealand long term?
HUNKIN: I hope so, let me put it that way, I hope so. I think Samoan has a reasonable chance of being maintained here, but the communities got to really work hard and ensure that's language is respected and used, not just in the Samoan families, but in the churches and wider societies in particular areas where there are large Samoan communities.
