In an interview with Māori TV’s show Kawekōrero, historian Paul Moon says that the solution to help strengthen te reo Māori is to dramatically fund Kōhanga Reo and to make it a nationwide organisation.
He goes on to say there is a need to create a demand where Te Reo Māori can be spoken on a daily basis.
Moon's latest book Killing Te Reo Māori received heavy criticism, including a full review of his book by Māori language expert Hemi Kelly.
“The so-called experts have had 40 years to address this crisis, it’s got worse, so I say to them in return, well, if they are experts how come things have got worse?” says Moon.
Moon believes there’s a real crisis in the language in terms of a substantial drop in the number of native speakers.
“Chronic underfunding of organisations like Kōhanga Reo which has a flow-on effect in terms of native speakers and a whole lot of other systemic problems, a whole lot of other statistical problems- that decline in the proportion of Māori that speak te reo- all these are converging into a crisis and some more radical steps need to be taken,” says Moon.