Venu Menon
Wellington, August 9,2024
The Language Week celebrations by the Cook Islands community in New Zealand is under way.
This milestone in the journey of the community in Aotearoa to reinforce its identity and culture forms part of the 2024 Pacific Language Week Series announced by the New Zealand government recently.
Minister for Pacific Peoples Shane Reti had announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika Festival in Auckland in early March.
Running from May to November, the 11 Pacific Language Weeks focus on Rotuman, Samoa, Kiribati, Cook Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Fiji, Niue, Tokelau, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
The communities of Rotuman, Samoa and Kiribati have conducted their respective language week celebrations, with the rest of the Pacific Islands communities set to celebrate their own language weeks in the coming months.
This year’s theme for the celebration by the Cook Islands community is:
“Connect me to the canoe of my tribe.”
“Sustainability” is the overarching theme of the Language Week Series for 2024.
The languages spoken by the people of the Cook Islands include: Cook Islands Maori, the Western Polynesian language Pukapuka, and a mixture of Cook Islands Maori and English spoken by the people of Palmerston Island.
The 2018 Census puts the Cook Islands population in New Zealand at 80,532.
Current estimates put the number at around 60,000, significantly higher than the population living in the Cook Islands.
The Cook Islands, along with Tokelau and Niue, fall within the Realm of New Zealand. The populations of these island nations retain New Zealand citizenship with full right of access to New Zealand.
The indigenous languages on these islands are protected by the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2010), which guarantees indigenous peoples the “right to revitalise, use, develop, and transmit their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures to future generations.”
The education systems in Tokelau, Niue, and the Cook Islands incorporate their home language to some level, though the instruction is provided mostly in English from a young age.
UNESCO found that at least 40% of the 7,000 indigenous languages used worldwide were in danger of being lost.
The Pacific Languages Strategy 2022-2032 builds on the early foundation laid by pioneers, drawn from teachers and community leaders, who feared the Pacific languages were in decline in New Zealand.
“Together, Maori and Pacific are like braided rivers, flowing towards Te-Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa which binds our special relationship as peoples of the vast blue Pacific Ocean with shared whakapapa, customs, values, spiritual beliefs, languages and cultures,” said then Minister for Pacific Peoples Autipo William Sio while inaugurating the Pacific Languages Strategy in 2022.
He said Aotearoa New Zealand was unique in that “we are a Pacific nation and home to one of the largest pacific populations in the world.”
This came with a responsibility to protect and promote the languages of our Pacific communities, Sio added.
Language week celebrations originated in Samoa in 2007 with Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa, founded by Fa’alapotopotoga mo le A’oa’oina o le Gagana Samoa i Aotearoa (FAGASA).
In 2009, the Human Rights Commission joined hands with the Pacific communities and the concept of Pacific Language weeks came into being.
Since 2010, the Ministry for Pacific Peoples has supported the Pacific Language Week celebrations by the Pacific communities with the long -term goal of maintaining and promoting indigenous languages across New Zealand.
While each Pacific language is allotted a week, the celebrations are year-long and marked by language learning initiatives led by Pacific communities across New Zealand.
The activities designed to promote the cultural identity of the Cook Islands during the language week celebrations include workshops, church services, community cooking, song and dance routines, story-telling, and alphabet learning for children.
“I encourage everyone to get involved in the Pacific Language Week celebrations – they’re a great way to embrace the diversity of New Zealand communities,” Minister Reti said.
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
