The Effect of Indigenous Politics on English Language Provision in New Zealand’s Māori Schools

Abstract

An ambivalence characterising the provision of English language instruction in New Zealand's Māori schools is traced to the establishment of the schools in the recent period of biculturalism and retribalisation, and to the role of the schools in indigenous ideology. The article discusses the effects of the ambivalence on English language provision in the Māori schools. The discussion is located in the wider context of uncertainty surrounding the role of the Māori language as either an ethnic language concentrated in the Māori sector of the New Zealand population or as a civic language for all New Zealanders.