Jacinda Ardern says daughter will be raised speaking Māori language and English



New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s daughter will be raised learning both English and the indigenous language of the country.

Ardern told Māori Television that she “certainly wants” newborn daughter Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford to learn te reo Māori.

“We haven’t just made that decision though about how that will happen … It’s an official language. It builds our understanding of Māori culture as well. For me, language is what sits at the heart of that.”

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Ardern returned to work this week after spending six weeks on maternity leave. She said that she also had ambitions of learning the indigenous language while away from parliament, but that it was a work in progress. “That’s still a project for us,” she said.

According to Statistics New Zealand, the proportion of Māori people able to hold an everyday conversation in te reo decreased 3.7% between 1996 and 2013. But anecdotal evidence suggests numbers of non-Māori speakers of the language are rising, as are young Māori adults and professionals, who would not have been captured in the last census.

Ardern explained in the interview that she gave her daughter the Maori middle name Te Aroha because it captured the warmth the Māori community had shown the family.

“We would somehow reflect in Neve’s name the generosity and kindness that was being shown to her, particularly on marae.”

Ardern’s government has a goal of creating a bilingual New Zealand and plans to make te reo universally available in schools by 2025.

New Zealand has three official languages: English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language.