getting back what was stolen

I just had a great korero with Tasha, my best mate from school days, who I haven't talked to on the phone since I got here in Canada... we had so much to catch up on!! Updates on ourselves, kids, parents, jobs, etc...

During our conversations we talked about her daughter Te Morehu who has been at kohanga her whole life and who is as proficient in the Maori language as she is in English... and Tasha's oldest son Johnny is also learning te reo now; his partner is fully bilingual and their adorable boy Lamarn has been in kohanga and a bilingual home environment all his life too. We also talked about Matiu and his experiences in immersion early childhood education and now school... and how all of these kids (sorry Johnny, I know you're not a kid anymore!) are so lucky to be able to take for granted that the Maori language is in thier worlds.

We're very jealous, Tasha and I, of their bilingualism... but also very proud. "We were robbed" Tasha commented at one point, and it's true, we were. Something was stolen from us, and we have felt the gap it has left every day of our lives.

This next generation is getting it back... but the beautiful thing is that their kids could be in a position where speaking Maori is no longer a political or unusual act... when Te Morehu and Matiu next have a chance to play together perhaps they'll speak in Maori, at least some of the time, but that's still a little unusual and they may well use English as a default when they start talking...

We're getting back what's stolen - and as well as finding ways to pass on the language we need to find ways of not passing on the shame associated with not knowing... that's a burden for us to hold close and not inflict on the next generations if at all possible, including when the shame is expressed as jealousy or resentment that the language is so accessible to them in ways it wasn't to us.

I hope by the time Tasha and I are old ladies (hehehe) the kids around us will be able to take the Maori language for granted... not in a way that suggests they think it's boring, but in a way that suggests they think it's theirs. Which, of course, it is.