ABSTRACT
The indigenous Ma-ori language in Aotearoa/New Zealand has survived near extinction after a history of repressive colonization that threatened not only the language but the unique identity of the Ma-ori population and their culture (Durie, 1998). Education, within this context, failed to address any aspirations of the ethnic minority and instead was seen by colonial governments as the means of assimilating Ma-ori students into the lower levels of European culture and society (Berryman, 2008; Bishop & Glynn, 1999). However, the adaptation and adjustment by Ma-ori society to the impacts of colonization has shown an amazing resilience, confounding the predictions, and perhaps the wishful thinking, of late 19th-century European commentators.
