O Tatou Ō Aga'I I Fea?/'Oku Tau Ō Ki Fe?/Where Are We Heading?

Abstract

This paper examines the health of the four largest Polynesian Pasifi ka languages in Aotearoa/ New Zealand (New Zealand). It presents perspectives and interpretations from the researchers and writers who are at the same time, parents and grandparents of Pasifi ka children of Tongan, Samoan and Cook Islands ancestry. It examines: fi ndings from the 2006 Census; a major sociolinguistic study examining these four languages in New Zealand's most multicultural city between 2000 and 2008; and insider community sources. These indicate that Pasifi ka languages in New Zealand show signifi cant signs of language shift and loss, with several languages unlikely to survive unless urgent maintenance and revival measures are adopted. It seeks reasons for the shift of Pasifi ka families to using more English. It argues that the discourses of family language for private use, and English for education and public use, emerged in the Pacifi c, came with the migrants and is now deeply entrenched in New Zealand. The paper suggests that expanding the role of Pasifi ka languages into education and the public domain through Bilingual/Immersion Education is the prime strategy for future survival of these languages. We use initial capitals for the term Bilingual/Immersion Education in this article to indicate that this is a major world approach to education. Following Baker (2006), Garcia (2009), and May and Hill (2005), we use bilingual and immersion to cover all forms of fi rst language and second language medium education. This dual use is very important in New Zealand where until recently a rigid and artifi cial separation was made between Bilingual Education and Immersion Education (May & Hill, 2005, 2008).

“We are not privileged enough to have that foundation of language”: Pasifika young adults share their deep concerns about the decline of their ancestral/heritage languages in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…New Zealand has been criticised for being remiss in not having a comprehensive language strategy especially as the research shows the level of threat (Amituana’i-Toloa, 2010; de Bres, 2015; Hunkin, 2012; May, 2009; McCaffery & McFall-McCaffery, 2010).…”

“…It has been argued that the lack of well-thought out language policies has contributed to these losses (Hunkin-Tuiletufuga, 2001, p. 208; May, 2009, p. 3). The steady attrition of ancestral languages among New Zealand born means the situation is an urgent matter of survival (McCaffery & McFall-McCaffery, 2010).…”

“…The English language, via the schooling system, transactions of government, the economy and social life, is dominant in New Zealand (de Bres, 2015; Hunkin, 2012; May, 2009; McCaffery & McFall-McCaffery, 2010).…”

“…In their pilot study of Pasifika languages in Manukau City, Taumoefolau, Starks Davis, and Bell (2002) found that the first signs of language shift were evident in Census data about monolingualism in English, erosion of formal and informal forms and usage in public, home and school settings, among Pasifika peoples in Aotearoa. De Bres (2015), Amituana’i-Toloa (2010), Glasgow (2010), McCaffery & McFall-McCaffery (2010), May (2009) and Starks (2006) argued that the situation has worsened and that language survival is now at risk unless strategic maintenance actions in both public and private spheres are initiated, with bilingual education initiatives seen as critical.…”

“… 1. “Pasifika” is the Niuean transliteration of “Pacific” which in Aotearoa New Zealand is widely used to describe people from the Pacific Islands including those of Pasifika descent born in Aotearoa. The term Pasifika has been criticised for masking the uniqueness of each group, but here, it is used “in the spirit of unity through diversity” (McCaffery & McFall-McCaffery, 2010, p. 87). …”