Te Rūnanga o ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori co-chair Rawiri Wright discusses Te Wiki o Te Reo, and Taxpayer Union Executive Director Jordan Willliams shares his views on the Treaty Principles Bill.

Te Rūnanga o ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori co-chairperson Rawiri Wright discusses Te Wiki o Te Reo, and Taxpayer Union Executive Director Jordan Willliams shares his views on the Treaty Principles Bill.

Over the weekend, Te Rūnanga o ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori co-chair Rawiri Wright shared a transformative experience with his two sons, Kereama and Manawa.

The three received their mataora at Ruamata Marae.

The pursuit of te reo Māori has been a form of activism for Rawiri and his whānau, and reviving mataora is another expression of that activism. Their mokopapa was held on the 42nd anniversary of the Māori Language Petition being delivered to Parliament and on the eve of te Wiki o te Reo Māori.

Wright told Mata there were more people speaking Māori now than there had ever been, but the proportion of Māori speakers as a percentage of the total population of Māori was declining.

"That's a concern for me," he said.

"We're close to a million people now. But the proportion of us, so if you take that 24 percent of us are speakers of Māori to one degree or another, that means that there are just under 250,000 Māori who speak Māori.

"Now, that's more Māori who have ever spoken Māori if we look back in history.

"Then you add to those the non-Māori who are speakers of Māori and, you know, that paints another picture.

"But it talks to me about the ongoing dislocation of the majority of Māori from te ao Māori."

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details