Te Tai – Treaty Settlement Stories

Story: Te Mana o te Reo Māori

Ngā Kaiwhakapūmau i te Reo

Ngā Kaiwhakapūmau i te Reo is the organisation that took the WAI11 Māori language claim to the Waitangi Tribunal. The claim was also in the name of Huirangi Waikerepuru as an individual.
Large group of people crammed into a radio station smiling at the camera.
A group at the Wellington Maori radio station, Te Upoko o te Ika, celebrating the station's third birthday, 17 April 1991. From left to right: Mike Wills, Donald (Donny) King, Henare Kingi, Piripi Walker, Erana Hemmingsen (obscured), Mere Grant (standing), Lucy Te Moana (kneeling), Hirini Melbourne, Philip (Pip) Saffery, Henare Hetaraka (standing), Piripi Whaanga (kneeling), Murray Raihania, Kevin Hodges, Iris Te Ari Whaanga (sitting), Mahia Fuimaono (kneeling), and Huirangi Waikerepuru.
Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: PAColl-8124.

As an incorporated society it is responsible to its membership, which has always included non-Māori as well as Māori.

Ngā Kaiwhakapūmau i te Reo was set up in the early 1980s as an initiative supported by the Department of Māori Affairs to establish a national network of voluntary community-based Māori Language Boards to promote te reo.

Its name reflects its ambition and optimism: ‘ngā kaiwhakapūmau i te reo’ can be translated as ‘those who make the [Māori] language permanent’. ‘Pūmau’ evokes the qualities needed to lead social change. Te Aka Māori Dictionary defines pūmau as ‘to be fixed, constant, permanent, true to, steadfast, faithful and staunch’.

A large archive of the early work of Ngā Kaiwhakapūmau can be seen, with permission, at the National Library in Wellington.

Quote printed on a card.
Card used by members of Ngā Kaiwhakapūmau i te Reo in government departments and similar organisations to highlight their wish to do business in te reo.
Picture supplied by Colin Feslier and Angela Belich
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