Past...

Twenty years ago, Te Reo Maori (the Maori language) was a language at risk with little chance of recovery. Increasingly, it was being spoken mostly by the kaumatua (elders) and in some of the universities.

...and present

Today, the language still has a fragile hold in Maori society as a whole, but every year now there are several thousand young children entering the education system already fluent in the language and tikanga (customs) of their ancestors. In their hands will rest the future of Te Reo Maori.