New Zealand's Pacific Peoples minister says more needs to be done to expand the use of Pacific languages beyond language weeks.
Pacific Peoples Minister, Aupito William Sio. Photo: Supplied
This week is Niue language week -- one of seven weeks celebrating Pacific languages held in New Zealand.
Aupito William Sio said while such weeks remained important, more investment and research was needed to help struggling languages.
"What we'll do with that is basically start from our starting point with the Pacific language weeks and continue to build on that as the community directs us, which requires us to make sure that the language weeks are better co-ordinated on a nationwide basis, but will also require us to look to the source of the language."
listen to Aupito William Sio's interview with Dateline Pacific
Aupito said $NZ20 million has been allocated for further research and language support.