Te Ao Māori

TMP now prefers funding biligual programmes

07:11 am on 11 April 2014

Te Mangai Paho, the Maori Broadcasting Funding Agency, has overhauled the way it funds radio and television programmes - now preferring to pay for bilingual programmes.

Its latest annual report shows it's adopted a new approach called Right Shifting to Rebuild Maori language communities to make Te Reo more widely used..

Chair Piri Sciascia say tangata whenua have struggled to make Te Reo an everyday accepted language, despite it being recognised as a taonga.

He says the most significant contributor to the death of a language is people's attitude and values towards it.

The report suggests through the new approach people can learn the language through bilingual content because viewers and listeners would not be alienated from what's going on.

Mr Sciascia says professionals working in radio and television are positive about the new approach.

The GC, a television programme which follows a group of young Maori living in Australia, has been given a second round of funding from the agency, and has agreed to increase its Te Reo content.

While the Radio Te Arawa is now bilingual, after many years of providing programmes mainly in the Maori language.