Thirty years ago the first kōhanga reo opened its doors and since then more than 60,000 pre-schoolers have graduated. The language nests led a national movement that gave rise to a Māori language education system and an acceptance by New Zealanders that te reo Māori was an important part of the nation’s identity.

Kōhanga reo has also led the way internationally, inspiring indigenous cultures around the world. Similar pre-school language nests have been set up in Hawai’i, Papua New Guinea and by American Indians, and all use kōhanga reo as a benchmark. Kōhanga reo are also now established in London and Australia.

The idea for kōhanga reo was born out of the belief that Māori cultural identity and language were the keys to unlocking Māori potential. It also had a philosophy of elders educating children.

Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust, which was formed in 1982 and is based in Wellington, runs the training and co-ordination for all the language nests.

The movement, has had a massive impact on Māori advancement and within Ngāi Tahu, more than 1000 children have graduated from kōhanga reo.

Maruhaeremuri Stirling (Ngāi Tahu, Te Whānau-a-Apanui, Ngāti Porou) is better known as Aunty Kui. Back in the early 1980s she was a community officer with the Department of Māori Affairs. Along with other South Island officers including Hariroa Daymond and Kathleen Stuart (Ngāi Tahu – Ngāti Wheke), Stirling (known to most as Aunty Kui), attended national hui in Wellington to discuss the state of te reo Māori and the role Māori language nests could play in Māori development. Stuart’s brother Ben Couch was Minister of Māori Affairs when the initiative started. Couch supported the concept and gave each kōhanga a start-up grant of $5000.

Aunty Kui and the late Areta Wikiriwhi were then charged with establishing kōhanga reo throughout Canterbury.

The first whānau kōhanga reo was at Te Rangimarie in Christchurch city, with Te Whatumanawa Māoritanga o Rehua being the first licensed kōhanga reo.

As a native speaker of te reo Māori, Aunty Kui shoulder-tapped other fluent speakers to help and says she “had a ball” travelling around Canterbury assisting communities to set up language nests.

“We had to drop tools and look for the people who could kōrero Māori. I’d ask people from all different tribes who had the reo at the same level as mine and drag those reo-carriers in.”

Aunty Kui was brought up speaking te reo Māori on the East Coast of the North Island and she made it clear to kaumātua that they weren’t at kōhanga reo to teach pre-schoolers, they were there to share their knowledge of Māori language and culture.

She’d tell them, “Ehara koe i te kaiako – ko koe te kaikawe o te reo Māori, me whāngai te reo ki ngā tamariki me ngā whānau e hiahia ana ki te ako.” (“You’re not a teacher – your job is to pass on Māori language, and feed those children and families who are hungry to learn.”)

In the 1980s, kōhanga reo sprang up in many places in the South Island. One was attached to the old Burnham military camp near Christchurch; there was one in Central Otago and one “up in the bush somewhere” near Karamea. They were established in people’s garages, lounges and community halls.

“We had a lot of fun,” says Aunty Kui. “Pakeke adult would be down on their knees making animal noises saying ‘Anei te tangi a te kau – mū!’.” (This is the sound of a cow – moo!)

“We’d take whānau to the ngāhere (the bush) or kohikohi pōhatu (gathering rocks) by the beach. If whānau had any raruraru (disputes), I’d come and help.”

Parental involvement has been pivotal to the success of kōhanga reo and at the heart of its broader aim of strengthening whānau.

This has been a continuing theme with new kōhanga reo. The Arahura Kōhanga Reo on the West Coast closed in 1999 but has recently reopened as Te Kōhanga Reo o Te Oho Ake o Tāpuwai. Based at Arahura Pā, the kōhanga reo has seven children on its roll – all pā kids from the Mason, Tainui and Tauwhare whānau.

Chairman Te Rua Mason (Ngāi Tahu – Ngāti Waewae, Ngāti Ruanui, Tainui-Waikato) says the kōhanga reo came about as a result of whānau wanting to build whanaungatanga with each other.

Things then began to progress as one of the aunties “had a chat over a cup of tea”. As a result, Catherine Stuart and Sue Tipene from Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust, went across to Te Tai o Poutini to help formally set up the kōhanga reo.

“We would get together two to three days a week and start learning karakia, pepeha and having a kai,” says Mason. “We would also go places: to the river, the pā, urupā and reconnect with each other – the living and the dead – to understand our past.”

On the day, TE KARAKA visits the West Coast, the kōhanga reo is at Lake Kaniere for whanaungatanga and a picnic. The day prior the children had been learning about waka ama.

Mason’s partner, Miriama White (Ngāi Tūhoe), has taken up the role of kaiako and is completing the three-year Te Tohu Mātauranga Whakapakari Tino Rangatiratanga o Te Kōhanga Reo. They have three children with one at kōhanga reo.

Mason says while kōhanga reo nurtures the language, it also helps break down barriers and helps children and families realise each other’s strengths and skills. “It allows us to govern ourselves at the roots.”

Over at Rangiora Te Kōhanga Reo, which was set up by Aunty Kui in 1985, a mini bus of tamariki arrives from Christchurch.

The kōhanga reo has been collecting its students from the city for more than 16 years, where most of the kōhanga students reside. Only three students live in Rangiora.

After the Christchurch earthquake kaiako Maria Reid (Ngāti Porou, Tainui, Ngāti Maru) says the roll plummeted from 32 to 10 students within a week and a half. Five of those students have now returned and the roll has bounced back up to just over 20 students. It was an anxious time for the kōhanga reo.

Reid first came to kōhanga reo 18 years ago as a parent helper. Although her parents were fluent in te reo Māori, Reid was not; but she has learned her reo through training courses and working at the language nest. Reid is a graduate of one-year courses Te Ara Tuatahi Mō Te Reo Māori and Te Ara Tuarua, and the three-year Whakapakari course.

“I was able to have a career  while being with my children,” says Reid.

She is now a fluent speaker – something that makes her mother, Kui Heagney (Ngāti Porou), especially proud.

Reid’s children are now grown up with the eldest, Ramari, off to the University of Otago next year.

Kari Moana Kururangi (née Austin), now in her late twenties, is also a kōhanga reo graduate.

She says attending Timaru Te Kōhanga Reo as a preschooler changed her life, triggering an ongoing desire to learn te reo Māori.

The kōhanga reo was set up in an old church hall by local parents, including her mother, Sharyn Nolan (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha), who couldn’t speak Māori.

Most mornings, Kururangi and her older brother Manu would be accompanied by their mother and tāua Mihirau Nolan from Arowhenua marae.

Three generations of her whānau learned basic Māori together by singing songs, playing together and repeating simple phrases in te reo Māori. They were taught by fluent Māori speakers from the North Island, who Kururangi says, “gave a heck of a lot to the iwi”.

“The whakawhanaungatanga (strong relationships between people) is the thing I’ll remember most,” she says.

Later, at Roncalli College in Timaru, her mother managed to persuade the school to let her study te reo Māori via The New Zealand Correspondence School.

Kururangi went on to study towards a double degree in law and arts, majoring in te reo Māori and Treaty of Waitangi studies. She shifted to the University of Waikato to complete the final two years of her degrees so she could submit law and arts papers in te reo Māori. Kururangi says it was daunting at first but “one of the best things I’ve ever done”.

This year she studied at Te Panekiretanga o Te Reo Māori – the Māori Language School of Excellence. Entrance to the course is by invitation only and it recognises people committed to learning and using the language at a high level.

Now on maternity leave, Kururangi has moved from Christchurch to Rolleston. Waimārima is only five months old and unlike her mother, she is being raised in a strong Māori-speaking household. Husband Komene Kururangi (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui) is a fluent Māori speaker and a lead tutor at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

There is no doubt Waimārima will grow up speaking fluent Māori but Kururangi hasn’t decided if Waimarima will go to kōhanga reo or a total-immersion early childhood education (ECE) centre.

While kōhanga reo is widely praised for nurturing te reo Māori graduates and stimulating a Māori language education system, it has also stimulated the development and growth of other types of Māori language centres such as Māori ECEs.

In the mid-90s around half of Māori preschoolers were enrolled at a kōhanga reo. That has since dropped to around a quarter and there are currently no Māori language nests located between Christchurch and Dunedin. Nationally the number of kōhanga reo operating has dropped from a high of 809 centres in 1993, to 465 today.

Catherine Stuart (Ngāi Tahu – Ngāti Wheke, Tainui) is regional manager (Te Waipounamu) for Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust.

Stuart took over from her mother, Kathleen, who supported her in the role. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up, says Stuart.
“I enjoy the kaupapa and I’m passionate about the reo, whānau development and our mokopuna.”

Having had some experience handling finances in her parents’ businesses, she volunteered to be the treasurer and administrator for Te Hōhepa Te Kōhanga Reo in the late 1980s. She later became the secretary and developed her skills to the point where she was training other whānau to manage the books and keep up with the paperwork. She now manages four full-time staff whose main role is to support the 26 kōhanga reo operating in the region.

Stuart says whānau Māori have also dramatically changed in the last 30 years. With more parents working, fewer are able to attend kōhanga reo during the day; although Stuart says working parents still make a big contribution by helping with after-hours management, fundraising and attending monthly hui.

However, both Stuart and Aunty Kui pinpoint the abolition of the Department of Māori Affairs as the body blow for kōhanga reo.

Since 1990, kōhanga reo have come under the Ministry of Education, which has aligned kōhanga reo with other early childhood centres, meaning language nests must comply with Early Childhood Education regulations.

“We lost kōhanga reo because some did not meet compliance – working from garages, lounges, community halls and whare kai was not acceped by MoE, hence the decline,” says Stuart.

One particular bone of contention is the lower rate of funding most kōhanga reo receive for their operations because Te Kōhanga qualifications are not recognised by MoE.

From the outset, MoE has had a troubled relationship with the national trust but a recent ECE Taskforce report entitled, An Agenda for Amazing Children, was the final blow.

The independent report recommends “strengthening accountability measures” for kōhanga reo and highlights the disproportionate number of Education Review Office supplementary reviews required for kōhanga reo, implying language nests aren’t up to scratch.

The findings incensed the national trust and it filed an urgent claim with the Waitangi Tribunal alleging the Crown was discriminating against kōhanga reo because they did not operate like ECE centres.

Stuart and Aunty Kui travelled to Wellington in July to take part in a 1200-strong hīkoi to the tribunal office to personally lodge their claim.

Aunty Kui says MoE has tried to squeeze kōhanga reo in to an ECE box and failed to recognise it is a whānau-based development.

Ideally, the national trust would like to see kōhanga reo governed by its own legislation to ensure respect for its uniqueness. The urgent claim will be considered by the tribunal in March.

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