Ka Ngaro Te Reo : Maori Language Under Siege in the Nineteenth Century

Ka ngaro te reo, ka ngaro taua, pera i te ngaro o te moa.

If the language be lost, man will be lost, as dead as the moa.

In 1800, te reo Māori was the only language spoken in New Zealand. By 1899, it was on the verge of disappearing altogether. In Ka Ngaro Te Reo, Paul Moon traces the spiralling decline of the language during an era of prolonged colonisation that saw political, economic, cultural and linguistic power shifting steadily into the hands of the European core.

In this revelatory and hard-hitting account, Moon draws on a vast range of published and archival material, as well as oral histories and contemporary Māori accounts, to chart the tortuous journey of a language under siege in a relentless European campaign to save and civilize the remnant of the Māori Race.

He also chronicles the growing commitment among many Māori towards the end of the nineteenth century to ensure that the language would survive.

Dr Paul Moon is Professor of History at Auckland University of Technology, where his research focuses on nineteenth-century New Zealand.