Week 12 2016 Iwi radio; Māori magazines Māori and Media Week 12 2016 Iwi radio; Māori magazines

“English-language radio has been one of the major agents used in the transmission of the coloniser’s language, culture and hegemony. Radio can be subtle and pervasive. It is not surprising, therefore, that the use of Māori language in our region diminished over the decades in preference for English.” Joe Te Rito

Language Petition 1972

Ka whawhai …. Going to the Privy Council

Brief history of iwi radio The first iwi radio station to broadcast was Te Upoko o Te Ika (a Wellington based radio station) in 1982, initially on short-term licence. Those behind this radio station got so sick of waiting for the Govt to help that they borrowed a room, borrowed studio equipment and just started broadcasting. Their website tells you quite a bit about them, and iwi stations in general. http://www.teupoko.co.nz/#!te-hitori-o-te-upoko-o-te-ika

Early days at Te Upoko Note Piripi Walker at the back.  He remains Trustee and Secretary of the station’s Trust Board, a position he has held since 1994. Is also a Board member of Māori Television Often quoted in Jo Mane’s chapter

A further three iwi radio stations were established at Mangamuka, Whakatāne and Ruatōria in the late 1980s There are at present 27 iwi radio stations who together make up the Iwi Radio Network, mostly (as might be expected) in the North Island. TMP funds 21 of these, and six are self-funded. Because the Govt has put a freeze on Te Māngai Paho’s funding, it cannot commit to funding any more iwi radio stations at this stage.

http://www.irirangi.net/iwi-stations.aspx

Diversity in unification Iwi stations linked by star net ( a star network comprises a core central unit, which feeds information to various smaller units simultaneously) Ian Stuart has argued that what the star network does is allow for unification of Māori voices without lumping all iwi in together into some amorphous whole. Te Rito notes how valuable the shared programming was for a small struggling iwi station. Main shared programming.: news bulletins. TMP contracts an organisation to provide news services. Originally this was Mana News. Now it’s Radio Waatea

Official requirements of iwi stations The iwi stations hold radio frequency licences which stipulate that the frequencies must be used to: - promote Māori language and culture - broadcast to a primarily Māori audience. - broadcast eight hours of te reo every day between 6am and midnight

Te Puni Kokiri research New Zealanders’ Use of Broadcasting and Related Media FINAL Report 30 March 2009 Respondents most frequently reported listening to local access or commercial stations (e.g. the Breeze, the Rock, etc.) (74 percent), followed by the National or Concert stations (28 percent). Those aged 55+ were most likely to listen to the Radio New Zealand National or Concert stations, while those aged 15-24 were more likely to listen to commercial stations. Almost half of Māori (43 percent) reported listening to a Māori radio station (compared to 5 percent of non-Māori), a finding that was consistent across all age groups.

And also: Te Puni Kokiri Impact of Iwi Radio on Māori Language, 2011. Te Puni Kōkiri Iwi Radio Achievements, 2011. (Both on Canvas in Module for Week 12)

TPK Impact of Iwi Radio on Māori Language, 2011

And … Proficient Māori speakers also have station preferences that differ to those of non-proficient speakers. Proficient speakers are more likely to listen to Māori radio.

The Impact Survey found that over a quarter (28%) of Māori listened to at least one iwi radio station within the last twelve months, and 16% had listened to iwi radio within the seven days prior to the survey taking place. Of those listening to iwi radio within the seven day period, the survey showed that around half were listening on a daily basis. Extrapolating this result out to the entire Māori population indicates that approximately 69,800 Māori aged 15 years or older listen to iwi radio on a weekly basis.

Also … Proficient Māori speakers also have station preferences that differ to those of non-proficient speakers. Proficient speakers are more likely to listen to Māori radio.

TPK’s Iwi Radio Achievements (2011) Because it is portable and easy to access, radio makes the language widely accessible to people at all proficiency levels, including passive supporters of the language. Over the years, iwi radio has proven to be the foundation stone for developing the journalism and broadcasting skills of young Māori professionals. With the advent of the Māori Television Service and the growth of the New Zealand film industry, many who began in radio have now developed new career paths in film and television. [consider funding of iwi radio here] Iwi radio has also played a significant role in Māori communities, and in some areas is the only radio station that local listeners can access.

From TPK’s Impact Survey The Impact Survey shows a relationship between listening to iwi radio and Māori language usage. Those people who are using the Māori language more than they did twelve months earlier have consistently higher rates of listening to iwi radio than others. Of those who have increased their usage of Māori language, 23% had listened to iwi radio within the seven days prior to the survey – half listened daily. The survey shows that for 5% of regular listeners, Māori language learning was the first explanation given for listening to iwi radio. The availability of the service also made 58% of respondents want to learn or improve their Māori language skills. These results show that iwi radio is both a mechanism and motivator for language learning The Impact Survey shows that there is a relationship between iwi radio listenership and improvements in proficiency, and the maintenance of high proficiency.

TPK’s Summary Language revitalisation occurs due to a range of factors and cannot be attributable to a single causal factor. However the Impact Survey results show a consistent relationship between greater listening to iwi radio and increasing language usage, greater language learning, and proficiency increases and maintenance. Collectively these outcomes point towards iwi radio having a marked positive contributing impact on Māori language revitalisation. This occurs by motivating and prompting people to use their Māori language skills, while at the same time providing opportunities for individuals to enhance their existing skills. [i.e. a double whammy]

Jo Mane suggests other functions for iwi radio “Several participants interviewed for this study made both indirect and direct comment in regard to how issues regarding identity currently impact within Māori broadcasting. Pania Papa, Māori Manager for the production company Cinco Cine, raises the point in regard to programme content by stating: …kia ahu mai aua whakaaro me aua korero, me aua kaupapa i te whakaaro Māori, i te ao Māori ano hoki…[that thinking, discussion and underlying principles come from Māori thinking, from the Māori world]. …. Pania Papa

Annette Sykes takes this a step further: “To me the first thing is to help our children, our grandchildren to focus on the language of their own whanau, of their own hapū and Iwi. That’s the first thing. After that, to teach them about Kaupapa Māori, it’s not just about the language. The problem at this time is that Pākehā thinking is pervading the Māori language. That’s different to the values of our paramount language.”

Jo Mane also interviewed Wena Tait, who echoed this: Some have yet to live in a Māori family context, so there is the challenge, to remind them, that though they learn the language, they learn the language but the cultural values are based in Pākehā thinking.

JM elaborates from this: “Papa’s comments have considerable significance in speaking of the importance of producing content that represents Māori thinking, values and world views. While this particular view is a likely assumption that could be made in regard to the role of Māori broadcasting, that it needs to be stated, and even asserted, gives a sense that this is not yet the norm within Māori broadcasting.”

Remember this? “While we work to preserve the way we speak, the greater challenge is to protect the way we think. We suggest that a definition of ‘quality language’ is that which is correct in articulation and appropriate in expression. The panel heard many requests for MTS to exhibit more responsibility about the quality of te reo that it broadcasts. Language experts fear that MTS unwittingly entrenches and normalises incorrect Māori language, rather than offer quality language for the benefit of Māori language learners and others.”

“One of the dilemmas that face all who are engaged in the revitalisation of the language [is] that the Māori words we speak should reflect a Māori way of thinking. The well meaning attempts to preserve Māori grammar and vocabulary will come to nought if the language that we vocalise reflects English thought processes instead. The panel believes that the unique value of the Māori language is in danger of being diminished, perhaps fatally, by foreign thinking. One of the disturbing features of the modern Māori spoken by many learners of the language is that in syntax and idiom it sounds like Māori but feels like English. This could be perceived as a virtual colonisation of the Māori mind. Grammar is the soul of a language and the words its bones and flesh.”

Jo Mane concludes … “A re-occurring theme throughout this research highlighted from participants interviewed is the need to address the requirement for Māori broadcasting to be positioned in a Māori cultural context. The fact that Māori broadcasting actively reflects Māori values and world views implicit in tikanga Māori, is hereby stated to be as important as the promotion of language. The invasiveness of majority culture thinking on te reo Māori me ōna tikanga is also raised as of considerable concern throughout the duration of this study”.

Challenges for iwi radio

Funding low levels of funding mean that salaries are low and many of the stations are reliant on volunteer and usually unskilled volunteers. Te Rito quotes Piripi Walker in the early days arguing that stations needed $450,000 in order to function properly, but they only got $300,000. Writing in 2014, Te Rito says that this has risen little in his 25 years of broadcasting.

From Jo Mane’s research Winiata, W. Interview, 2007. Firstly, let the Crown be reminded of the many people, that they the Crown have assisted in gaining their knowledge and skills for these sorts of work. [broadcasting] If the Crown is like this, there is no reason that the same support not be there for Māori radio and this Māori television channel, to assist.

Sykes, A. Interview, 2006. The problem for iwi radio stations, their funding is only nominal to run their operations. I know one of the government agencies, that is, Radio New Zealand, the government gives 16 million dollars a year to that agency. But turn to my tribe, Te Arawa and know that $300,000 comes to my tribe to support my language of Te Arawa. How is that? I don’t know. To my thinking the language of my tribe is a unique/original language, a treasured language, but where is the spirit [goodwill] of the government to think like that.

And Piripi Walker: From the beginning of both of these developments, radio and Māori television, from the start the will of government has not really supported; like the government support for BCNZ in years gone by, since the 50s. How many billion dollars were given, were spent… the construction of transmitters on our mountains, how has the money benefited, the value of the money spent, in those past forty years, four, five billion, and now these new Māori initiatives have established, but it is Māori that pay the government…

And another position from Ngawai Herewini: Firstly, it is government’s lack of commitment to our language, to my thinking it is just the governments lip service, if they were committed to the original language of Aotearoa, they would stand behind their word, its like oh well there’s few Maori, only few Māori that know the language, it’s only right that the resources and finance go to tauiwi radio stations and those other than our Māori stations, these are the reasons that our Māori stations have not yet strengthened in moving forward, because of the governments lack of commitment to their word.

Challenge 2: the quality of the language “In 1996, Professor Timoti Karetu described Māori language broadcasting in relation to iwi radio as ‘variable in terms of quality and quantity’. The same was similarly expressed in 1998 by Piripi Walker in regard to the development of iwi radio at the time: While some iwi stations provide a quality Māori language, this does not apply to every rohe as the performance has been fairly patchy. Over the last two decades most stations have had native speaking elders as the mainstay of broadcasting operations, where elders fluent in the language and culture have informed, educated and entertained in the Māori language. Where many of the initial elders involved in iwi radio have passed on, there is a constant struggle to replace them with native or fluent language speakers. (Jo Mane)

Jo Mane continues “At Tautoko FM, the elders were encouraging and supportive of the younger generations of second language learners who often worked alongside fluent elder hosts, operating the technical side of operations. Though this provided an up-close, everyday experience of hearing the language spoken, there was no provision for supporting second language learners in the understanding and use of the correct structures of language use. Provision as such did not eventuate until over a decade after the emergence of iwi radio.”

Besides… Ki te ao Māori, kaua ma te tamariki e mihi ki te ao Maori…[In the Māori world, it is not for the children[young] to greet the Māori world …] In his comment, Piripi Walker alludes to traditional Māori cultural practice in the Māori world, where it is the elders who speak, where it is not usual for young people to speak unless directed by the elders themselves. Walker’s own preference is to utilise elders and those raised to speak Māori as their first language; and those further knowledgeable in cultural protocols, practices and values.

And another thing (says Jo Mane)… “Sheer commitment to te reo Māori has, in the experience of some iwi radio personnel, at times ensured on-air operations. Such commitment was voiced by long time pan-tribal broadcaster Henare Kingi who stated that there have been times, when faced with no funding, that staff had committed themselves to carrying on the work of the station.”

Which is all very well, but … “mainstream” radio stations don’t rely on volunteers while you may have some fluent speakers, and lots of volunteers, there is however an acknowledged shortage of experienced broadcasters who are fluent in te reo Māori from the very beginnings of Māori-led broadcasting, training has been voiced consistently as being of high need(JM) flight of experienced people to television stations or bigger radio stations

And note another challenge unwelcome attention from certain politicians who did not approve of either the language courses at EIT or the radio station (“waste of taxpayers’ money”); or suggested there should only be one Māori radio station.

Some other thoughts A former student: “Iwi radio can be seen as “talking in” because its focus is usually iwi specific and its principal function is to preserve dialectical reo and tikanga which is iwi specific” Jo Mane: Although some key people in Māori Television also work with Māori radio, it would appear that iwi/Māori radio has been relegated as the poor cousins of Māori Television, with little recognition of iwi radio being acknowledged in Māori terms, as the tuakana of Māori-led broadcasting.

Jo Mane: While Māori/iwi radio is largely regarded as a ‘flax-roots’development that has been driven from Māori communities, the fact that they are dependant on government funding, and therefore accountable to other than Māori authority, poses certain questions around what are deemed as ‘indigenous models’.

Jo Mane’s iwi radio station Here’s a clip from Te Karere when TautokoFM had been going for 21 years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnVofLXWTWk   http://tautokofm.com/ and let’s go the earliest of the archives: http://tautokofm.com/date/2009/11/ and then last year …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG8LFh9lkC8 and then a few months later … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcifGCBbYOc

http://www.radiokahungunu.co.nz/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVdfevbGK4c

Te Hiku Media 2016 Best Non Profit Enterprise Winner at Te Hiringa Mai Business Awards

“Te Hiku Media is a charitable media organisation, collectively belonging to the Far North iwi of Ngāti Kuri, Te Aupouri, Ngai Takoto, Te Rārawa and Ngāti Kahu.  The station is an iwi communications hub for iwi radio, online TV and media services. Māori language revitalisation is a core focus of Te Hiku Media, as is archiving and training. The kaupapa of Te Hiku Media is best articulated through the vision and mission of the organization which  was confirmed by a hui of kaumātua and kuia (elders), and other native speakers of Te Reo Māori at Mahimaru Marae on Thursday 30 May 2013. Vision "He reo tuku iho, he reo ora" - Living language transmitted inter-generationally. Mission "Whakatōkia, poipoia kia matomato te reo Māori o ngā haukāinga o Te Hiku o Te Ika“”

https://tehiku.nz/te-hiku-radio/ https://tehiku.nz/te-reo/waiata/21/nga-wahine-o-ngai-takoto

Radio Waatea http://www.waateanews.com/About+Us.html

http://tumekefm.co.nz/ http://tumekefm.co.nz/about-us-2/ “In the early stages of Tumeke broadcasts, there was a substantial amount of Te Reo Māori broadcast. An estimate from an announcer at that time was forty to sixty percent, with the bulk of daytime shows being mainly in Māori. Of a pool of seven announcers at that time, only two were fluent in Te Reo Māori. Levels of Te Reo Māori content fluctuated over time. Following a bold proposal to the trust in 1994 coupled with a drive to increase advertising revenues, Te Reo Māori use was to an extent temporarily compromised, in order to retain and attract advertising revenue.”