Fanning the sparks of dying languages

There are five Pacific languages listed as endangered by UNESCO. What's the point of reviving them?The loss of a language is also the loss of knowledge, histories and connections. But if there are no native speakers, should we let them die? According to UNESCO, the Rotuman language is listed as endangered along with four other Pacific languages - Tokelauan, Niuean, Cook Islands Māori and Tuvaluan. More than 160 languages are spoken in New Zealand. Week-long events celebrate the unique languages heard across the country, and this week the focus is on the Rotuman language. According to UNESCO, the Rotuman language is listed as endangered along with four other Pacific languages - Tokelauan, Niuean, Cook Islands Māori and Tuvaluan. RNZ newsreader Marama T-Pole is trying to master the Tuvaluan language, as part of her efforts to maintain her connection to her Tuvaluan roots. Growing up in Dunedin, she said there was a longing for her to explore her cultural identity."It was actually very invisible in my life - my Tuvaluan culture," she says."There was nothing that I could see that represented my father's culture."Despite that, there was this gnawing inside of me that wanted to connect to my Tuvalu side and in fact I was felt like there was something missing, even when I came to Auckland I was surrounded by a lot of Tuvaluan families and community up here but I still felt like I was not present. "I couldn't really participate, properly connect, converse with the ladies or the aunties and it just felt like I was a bystander."T-Pole says the push to speak Tuvaluan started when she took up the role of being a Sunday School teacher at her Tuvaluan Presbyterian church. "All of our congregation couldn't speak English properly, and every month they would ask me to do a report back to the congregation, I would speak in English and they would be saying 'speak in Tuvaluan!'"So in my broken language, I would try and start reporting back to them about what was happening and gradually over several years while I was doing it, I started to speak the language more."What happened in doing that ... is that suddenly this hole that I've had growing up had disappeared." While T-Pole admits she still has a long way to go in speaking Tuvaluan fluently, she says holding a conversation in Tuvaluan with her father before he passed away is a memory she treasures most. In 2022 the government launched the Pacific Languages Strategy, an action plan to reverse the declining use of Pacific languages in Aotearoa. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details