Northland kaumatua Dover Samuels holds out little hope of an apology during his lifetime to the children beaten for speaking te reo Photo: Peter de Graaf
A Northland kaumatua and former government minister says the Crown still has not said sorry to the children who were beaten for speaking te reo at school - 10 years after he called for a formal apology.
Dover Samuels made his demand during an impassioned submission to the Waitangi Tribunal's Northland Inquiry, on the eve of Māori Language Week 2015.
At the time he said nothing less than an apology from the prime minister, on behalf of the government, would suffice.
Now, in Māori Language Week 2025, the 86-year-old said he held out little hope of hearing an apology in his lifetime - and even if he did, it would come too late for most of his generation.
"I think if we got an apology after waiting so long, those who have passed away will probably wake up again to acknowledge it … What saddens me is that I'm probably one of the very few left who are now getting close to our 90s," he said.
Apologies had been offered for other injustices, such as the Dawn Raids of the 1970s, but not for the suppression of te reo.
However, Samuels acknowledged the "enormous changes" that had occurred since he was a child, including the kohanga reo movement, Māori broadcasting, the Māori Language Commission, and the way young people of all ethnicities had embraced the language.
Despite his calls for a formal apology, Samuels said no amount of government legislation or marching to Parliament could save the language.
Te reo would survive only if it was used by Māori in their everyday lives, he said.
The young Dover Samuels attended Whakarara Native School at Matauri Bay in the 1940s.
A young Dover Samuels (front centre in the dark jersey) at Whakarara Native School in 1949. Photo: Supplied
Māori was the only language he knew when he started his formal education, but he was required to leave it behind the moment he passed through the school gate.
Transgressions were punished by a whipping with a length of supplejack vine or kareao.
The beatings, which caused welts and bruises and sometime drew blood, were carried out in front of the class for added humiliation.
He had to hide the bruising from his parents in case they thought he had misbehaved at school and gave him a second dose.
In those days there was no protection from thick trousers or even underwear - a thin pair of shorts and a thin shirt was all children wore.
Beatings had also been meted out to previous generations but he believed the authorities had "put their foot down on the pedal" when he was a schoolboy.
Samuels, an MP from 1996-2006 and a former Minister of Māori Affairs, said the whippings had remained with him ever since.
He believed it was the "thin end of the wedge" of disempowerment, which started with language and progressed to the loss of land, sometimes for small sums of unpaid rates.
He said many Māori of the time could not understand why they had to pay to retain whenua [land] that had been handed down to them over many generations.
Samuels acknowledged much had changed since then, and also that New Zealand was becoming more multicultural rather than the simpler bicultural society of his childhood.
"You can't lock a language up in a box, or put it in a time warp," he said.
Northland kaumatua Dover Samuels speaking at Te Ahurea in Kerikeri. Photo: Peter de Graaf
While governments had a part to play in promoting te reo, ultimately only Māori themselves could ensure its survival.
"And the reality is, many Māori youth, on a per capita basis, do not speak or get involved in Māori culture."
However, Samuels said he had been "hugely impressed" by those of the current young generation who had embraced their culture.
They included mokopuna as young as five he had seen performing at a recent children's kapa haka festival, and the teenagers he saw getting up at marae and challenging their elders' kōrero.
"I take my hat off to them… man, that brings pride to the ngākau [heart]. That's something we should celebrate."
As for government moves to reduce the use of te reo in public life, Samuels said that was part of a worldwide political trend.
"I'm very cautious, and really concerned, about what's on the horizon for not just Māori but many indigenous peoples … All we can do is hope the so-called leaders of nations reduce the temperature and see this as a taonga [treasure], a part of humanity."
Asked to give a message for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori [Māori Language Week], Samuels said:
"Akongia tō tātou mokopuna o tātou tamariki me ngā uri kei te heke mai ki te pupuri, ki te ū ki to rātou reo, te reo rangatira o rātou tūpuna. [Our grandchildren, children and all those still yet to be born need to hold fast to their language, the great language of their ancestors.]
"Kaua e titiro ki etahi atu, kaua e titiro ki te kawanatanga - kahore! Titiro tātou ki a tātou ano, ki ou tātou uri, ki a tātou whaea, kaumātua, kuia, ki a rātou nei i tiaki, i poipoi nei, tēnei taonga tapu, taonga tuku iho. [Don't look to others, don't look to the government - no! Look to ourselves, elders who have nutured this sacred gift, a treasure from our ancestors.]
"Ko te tūmanako kōrerotia tō tātou reo puta noa o tēnei motu, tae noa o ngā whenua tāwahi." [The hope is we speak our language not just here but also overseas.]
In 2015, responding to Samuels' request, then Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson asked his officials to explore options for a Crown apology.
He said the Crown had previously acknowledged the beating of children for speaking te reo at school, and its damaging effects, in a number of Treaty settlements and Tribunal inquiries.
Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith said in its submissions to the Waitangi Tribunal's Te Raki (Northland) Inquiry in 2017, the Crown acknowledged its failure to actively protect te reo Māori was a breach of te Tiriti and its principles.
"Since then, the Crown has acknowledged and apologised for this breach of te Tiriti/the Treaty within Treaty settlement negotiations," Goldsmith said.
"In 2021, in submissions to the Waitangi Tribunal's Taihape inquiry, the Crown specified that its failure to address the punishment for students speaking te reo Māori was one of its failures to actively protect te reo Māori."
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