Te reo Māori becomes an official language

Section 77A of the Maori Affairs Act 1953 gave 'official recognition' to the language as the ancestral tongue of New Zealanders of Māori descent, and let the minister of Māori affairs encourage its learning and use. The courts had held, in a High Court ruling of 1979 confirmed by the Court of Appeal in Mihaka v Police, that a Māori who could speak English could not use his own language in court, even to speak on his own behalf. In 1984 Ngā Kaiwhakapūmau i te Reo, the Wellington Māori Language Board, and its chairman Huirangi Waikerepuru lodged a claim with the Waitangi Tribunal asking that the language receive official recognition. The claim, WAI 11, was the first generic Māori claim to the Tribunal. The claimants wanted Māori made official for all purposes, so that it could be used as of right in Parliament, the courts, government departments, local authorities and public bodies. They sought more than 70 recommendations.

The Tribunal heard the claim at Waiwhetū Marae in Lower Hutt in June and October 1985, and at Te Herenga Waka Marae at Victoria University of Wellington in November. It described the four weeks of hearings as its longest so far. Most of the Māori claimants addressed the Tribunal in Māori. Its report, dated 29 April 1986 and signed by Chief Judge E. T. Durie, Sir Graham Latimer and P. B. Temm, found that by the Treaty the Crown had promised to recognise and protect the language, and that the promise had not been kept. When the question was whether te reo was a taonga the Crown was obliged to recognise, the Tribunal concluded that there could be only one answer: the language was an essential part of the culture and must be regarded as 'a valued possession'. The Treaty's guarantee, it said, required 'affirmative action to protect and sustain the language, not a passive obligation to tolerate its existence'. In its finding, educational policy over many years and media that used almost nothing but English had swamped the language and done it 'great harm'. It dismissed section 77A as 'really an empty provision'.

The Tribunal made five recommendations: legislation allowing anyone to use Māori in all courts and in dealings with government departments, local authorities and other public bodies; a statutory body to supervise and foster the language; an inquiry into how Māori children were educated, so that all who wished to learn Māori could do so from an early stage; regard to the Treaty in broadcasting policy; and bilingualism as a requirement for some public service positions. It did not recommend making Māori compulsory in schools or publishing all official documents in both languages, thinking it 'more profitable to promote the language than to impose it'. The Māori Language Act received assent on 20 July 1987 and came into force on 1 August. Its preamble recorded that the Crown had guaranteed Māori all their taonga in the Treaty, and that the language was one such taonga. It declared Māori an official language of New Zealand. From 1 February 1988 members of a court or tribunal, parties, witnesses and counsel in legal proceedings could speak Māori whether or not they could understand or communicate in English, and the presiding officer had to ensure a competent interpreter was available. No one, however, could insist on being answered in Māori.

The Act also set up a Māori Language Commission, at first called Te Komihana mō te Reo Māori, to promote the language as a living language and an ordinary means of communication and to grant certificates of competency in interpreting and translating Māori. The Maori Language Amendment Act 1991 renamed it Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori. The right to speak Māori applied in legal proceedings, not in the dealings with government departments and local bodies that the Tribunal had recommended, and Wikipedia notes that, despite the Act, Māori did not have the same status under law as English. In the 1990s, when the government planned to sell state-owned broadcasting assets, the New Zealand Māori Council and Ngā Kaiwhakapūmau i te Reo took the Crown to court and appealed to the Privy Council. That court recognised that the language was in a 'vulnerable state' and that the Crown would need to 'take especially vigorous action for its protection'. The Crown amended the Broadcasting Act in 1993 and set up Te Māngai Pāho to fund Māori broadcasting, and the Māori Television Service followed in 2004.

The 1987 Act was repealed on 30 April 2016 and replaced by Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori 2016, the Māori Language Act 2016. Wikipedia records that the new Act created a body, Te Mātāwai, to act on behalf of Māori for the protection, promotion and revitalisation of the language. It was also the first New Zealand Act enacted in both Māori and English, with the Māori version prevailing if the two conflict.