Maori schools: lost words, found voices

  In 1867, New Zealand passed the Native Schools Act, outlawing the use of te reo¹ in schools. Teachers and school administrators beat students who dared to speak their mother tongue. Those abused Maori children became Maori parents; trying to protect their own children from the same fate, many discouraged the use of the Maori language, first in public and then at home. The number of native speakers dwindled², and the language was at risk of being lost. [...]
  Dame Iritana Tāwhiwhirangi was a founder and instrumental leader of the movement's first major success: Kohanga Reo. Opened in 1982 [...], translated in English to “language nest,” the Kohanga Reo was the first program of its kind to use total language and cultural immersion. For Maori communities, the schools were a revelation.
  Oriini Kaipara was born in 1983, right as the movement to revitalize te reo took off. Her parents and grandparents helped start the local Kohanga Reo, one of the first to open in Aotearoa. Kaipara and her classmates were taught to speak Maori “all the time, everywhere, no matter what,” she says. [...] “Our grandparents ruled, our parents ruled,” she says. “They just really wanted to instill in us the beauty of our language, our culture, and who we are.”
  [...] As Kimura notes, the act of mastering one's own language extends beyond learning a new set of words and phrases. It allows communities to view and understand the world as their ancestors did and keeps their way of life alive and well for the generations to come. “It's not just language,” he says. It's everything.