Grammar Theory II

Facultad de Humanidades
Lic. en Educación en Inglés
Teoría Gramatical

Language and
Culture
Mapuche & Maori

Nombres:
Camila Pizarro F.

1 Language and Culture

Mapuche and Maori
 Grammar Theory II

Camila Poblete Ch.

Language and Culture Mapuche & Maori

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 ABSTRACT

*Key words:

- Mapuche speakers
- Maori speakers
- Discrimination, segregation and discrimination

 INTRODUCTION

• What is language?

-Language Functions

• Social relationship

-Society relationship with Mapuche

-Society relationship with Maori

 THEORICAL FRAMEWORK

• Concepts definition

- Discrimination
- Discourse
- Ethnic group
- Racism
- Te Reo Mâori
- Mapudugun
- Mapuche
- Interculturality
- Communicative
- Competence

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- Knowledge
- Aboriginal
- Culture
- Community
- Elder
- Approach
- Second language acquisition or second language learning
- Method of teaching languages
- Aboriginal
- Culture

 BODY

• Historical context

- Who are Mapuche?

- Who are Maori?

• Description of Culture and Religion

-Mapuche culture
-Maoiri culture

* Regional dialects
- Mapudungun
Maori

* Use, respect and education of the Cultural Knowledge

- Racial and Ethnic Minorities

- Stereotyping

- Invisibility

- Derogatory Labelling and Racial Slurs

-Use of the term 'Australian"

- Quoting Racist Material

- Representation of racial and ethnic diversity in case materials and
illustrations

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* Native Language characteristic

-Mapudungun

-Taori

* Do we share celebrations?

• Yesterday and Today for Maori and Mapuche

* Aboriginal Rights
-Indigenous Australians
- Mapuche :
-Valuing Aboriginal language and culture

• Influence of Colonization and Globalization

-colonization

-Globalization

• Influence In language

-Influence of Maori in English

- Influence of Mapuche in Spanish

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 CONCLUSIONS

Key words

- Education

- The importance of respecting and preserving values and beliefs of

Aboriginal cultures.

- Preservation of Aboriginal languages

- Language a and culture are inseparable

 REFERENCES

ABSTRACT

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This paper documents the experiences of discrimination in this case against

Mapuche, the largest aboriginal group in Chile, through focusing on their oral
discourse. It is going to be prove between other things , the way in which their
language has becoming lost due to the racism and segregation they have
suffered: It is estimated that only about 200,000 full-fluency speakers
remain in Chile, and the language still receives only token support in the
educational system. To make a contrat with another culture the same is
going to be compared with the situation of Maori , the aboriginal people of
New Zealand. According to studies the number who now speak fluent Maori,
perhaps 70 per cent of the 170,000 Maori people. But the most disturbing
feature is the fact that probably only 60 per cent of the young Maori population
(probably less) under 20 years of age can and do speak Maori1. Something
quite different to the actual difference with mapuche: although both have to
face discrimination the use of laws for stopping segregation have done the
difference between both because Teaching of the Maori Language is
something necessary and respected in Australian society Since 1930 Maori
studies: history, arts, music, games, and other elements of this culture, have
been growing in importance as an essential part of the curriculum in several
subjects both for Maori and for European pupils. The Maori language itself is
being taught today in nearly all Maori district high schools and in some State
and private secondary schools; tuition is also available from the
Correspondence School as far as staffing allows.

So in both cases the phenomenon of discrimination is the common factor ,

nowadays discrimination can be expressed in different ways. Racism is
experienced everyday in interethnic interactions by means of verbal, behavioural,
institutional and macro-social modes. Verbal racism includes name-calling (e.g.
'indio' [Indian]2) and stereotyping (e.g. 'primitive'). Racism includes looking,
ignoring, avoiding, segregating and denial of identity.

Aboriginal Elder 2000 "It was only six years ago, a teacher read a book to a group
of adult learners which referred to Aboriginal peoples as savages."
"In recent years, in Tasmania, a primary teacher told a child he was lying when he
said he was an Aborigine. “Aboriginal staff member

1
Complete Manual of Maori Grammar and Conversation, Ngata, A. T.
(1948)
2
www.antonioduenas.es/.../Indio-e-indigena.html

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Obviously Natives languages have lost many of its genuine and ancient words,
because of the necessity for the aboriginal people to exist in an always changing
world with the constant adoption of transliterations into the language. But as was
mentioned before, the preservation of language it means retain much of the
classical language, due the action of social politicises such as in schools where
the study of traditional languages is a fact

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INTRODUCTION

What is language?

Firstly, language is a medium of communication, mirrors one’s identity and is an

integral part of culture. Some people referred to language as the soul of culture3. It
is the way that people express their way of feeling the world over their heads and it
reflects everything they believe. When somebody discriminate someone, it is
through language; that is to say, if you discriminated the language, the whole
identity of a person is going to be limited.

Language Functions4
Language functions include:
giving and getting Information, socializing and celebrating interpreting discourse,
researching and producing discourse.
Language and language use can cause discrimination, exacerbate discrimination
or reflect other forms of discrimination.
Discriminatory language is that which creates or reinforces a hierarchy of
difference between people. It is therefore both a symptom of and a contributor to,
the unequal social status of women, people with disabilities and people from
various ethnic and social backgrounds.

In many contexts it is quite unnecessary to mention a person's sex, race, ethnic

background, sexuality, age, disability, or physical appearance. For members of
minority, or less powerful groups, these characteristics are often highlighted, even
to the exclusion of other information which would have been more relevant in the
context.

Language is used also to indicate that a certain group of people in this case
natives, is linguistically subsumed under a label, name, so they don’t deserve the
same attention, creting a stereotype of them. This fixed image of a person or
persons belonging to a particular group is formed by isolating or exaggerating
certain features -physical, mental, cultural, occupational, personal and so on which
seem to characterise the group.

Language can be used to impose and remark weakness. Minority groups suffer
from this due, it is their lack of power that define themselves. That impossed labels
are frequently used by majority or dominant groups for convenience, and may be

3
Decolonizing the mind, the politics of language in African literature, Nairobi: Heinemann, 1986.
4
http://services.admin.utas.edu.au/equity/just_talk/#languageasVehicle

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inaccurate in various ways and alienating for the group it supposedly describes, in
this case the dominant language, the actual versus native language .

Social relationship

Society relationship with Mapuche

“(...) Chilean state does not recognise the existence of another people, only
Chileans. It is very positive that there are bodies that highlight hidden situations, as
in the case of Mapuche and the indigenous people generally. Chile is the only
country in South America that does not have constitutional recognition of
indigenous people. It could be said to be the most retrograde state in America. It is
the most anti-indigenous state”5.

Society Relationship with Maori

One of the challenges indigenous populations contest is the right to name and
define who they are to the rest of the world 6 .For Māori, the right to name personal
individuality as well as the collective qualities that are unique to whānau (family),
iwi (tribe) and culture is desired, rarely taken for granted and often involves
struggle.

The opposition that Māori face with society for their cultural legimation is related
with warrior gene, they are predominantly portrayed as violent. The negative public
perception of Māori was investigated by the media releasing news, it implied a tacit
association between violence and Māori and perpetuated the perception that Māori
are inherently violent thus lending support to the negative racial stereotypes
already existent (Chant, 2009). Undoubtedly the power of the media to represent
ethnic minorities in ways that disadvantage them.

According to the 2001 New Zealand census, 14.6% of the population identifies
itself, at least partially as indigenous Maori7. Maori are part of everyday life and are
inculcated in the national identity many New Zealanders are familiar with and
accept as part of their heritage. As a bicultural nation New Zealand is comprised of
positive cross-cultural exchanges which provide frames of reference which query
the negative representation of Māori culture and highlight the imbalanced
representation, Maori have experienced in the warrior gene controversy. To follow
racial stereotypes are part of bicultural society and embedded in everyday life.
Cross-cultural convergences refute the misrepresentation surrounding Māori and
5
Leslie Ray, Language of the land: the Mapuche in Argentina and Chile, IWGIA, 2007.
6
(Smith, 2005).
7
www.domotica.us/Nativo

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contend that despite negative publicity the Māori warrior is an ingrained part of
society which is accepted by many New Zealanders as part of their national
identity.

That aspect was common between these countries untill 2007, when New Zealand
signed against the declaration of the rights of indigenous people. But now, in 2010,
the Government's decision to formalize its support for the UN Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous People will help to the treatment of indigenous rights,
especially Maoris’ rights.

Unfortunately, if we compare the situation with the one that exists in our country is
very different. In Chile many languages are in danger of extinction, and
Mapudungun is one of them. There are still many speakers of Mapudungun today
(about 140.000 y 400.000) but many Mapuche children grow up speaking Spanish
more than their native language, or not learning Mapudungun at all. This is a great
loss, not only for the culture and identity of the Mapuche people, but also for
anyone interested in studying culture and language as a way of understanding
what it means to be human.8 It could be said that Mapudungun is a language that
people just speak at home. Because they are not recognized and respected in their
own country and perhaps they feel ashamed because of their ethnicity.
At the beginning of the 19th century the Maori language (te reo Maori) was the
predominant language spoken in Aotearoa/New Zealand. As more English
speakers arrived in New Zealand, the Maori language was increasingly confined to
Maori communities. By the mid-20th century there were concerns that the
language was dying out. Major initiatives launched from the 1980s have brought
about a revival of te reo. In the early 21st century, more than 130,000 people of
Maori ethnicity could speak and understand te reo, one of the two official
languages of New Zealand.9 We can appreciate that Mapuche people do not have

THEORICAL FRAMEWORK

8
http://www.xs4all.nl/~rehue/lang/lan002.html
9
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/timeline/01/08

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“Discrimination is a sociological term referring to the treatment taken toward or

against a person of a certain group in consideration based solely on class or
category”10.

"Discourse is the way in which language is used socially to convey broad historical
meanings. It is language identified by the social conditions of its use, by who is
using it and under what conditions. Language can never be 'neutral' because it
bridges our personal and social worlds."11 Discourse as language enables
information to transcend; it is the key to providing explanations of how societies
function. It defines who we are and where we come from, how our culture works
and how we define the world around us. And because of these differences, arise
discrimination.

Communicative The ability to use systems of language in various contexts and

situations to perform a

Competence variety of language functions.

Communicative An approach to teaching a second language that is based on

providing opportunities

“An ethnic group is a human population whose members identify with each other,
usually based on a presumed common genealogy or ancestry”12

Knowledge being knowledgeable about the culture, its perspectives, practices and
products.

Aboriginal The term Aboriginal is used in the context of the indigenous peoples of
a particular Country. This worldview presents human beings as inhabiting a
universe made by the Creator and striving to live in respectful relationship with
nature, one another and oneself. Each Aboriginal culture expresses this worldview
in different ways, with different practices, stories and cultural products

Culture: The customs, history, values and languages that make up the heritage of
a person or people and contribute to that person’s or people’s identity.

“‘Interculturality’ may be defined as the set of processes through which relations

between different cultures are constructed (...). It refers to cultural pluralism, with
an emphasis on exchange, interaction and solidarity between cultural expressions,

10
Richard McKenzie Neal, We the People: A Christian Nation, Authorhouse, 2010.
11
Frances Henry and Carol Tator, Discourses of Domination. Univ. of Toronto Press, 2002.
12
Caroline Clauss-Ehlers, Encyclopedia of Cross-Cultural School Psychology, Springer, 2009.

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values, ways of life and symbolic representations which are different, but
complementary”13

Community associate their culture with specific cultural practices, such as

protocols for interaction, dances, gathering of earth medicines and ceremonies,
and specific cultural products, such as stories, tools, architectural design and
spiritual symbols.

“According to the New Zealand Curriculum, Te Reo Mâori is one of the three
official languages in New Zealand since 1987 (...). Harlow (1991:29) assumes that
there are only between 30.000 and 50.000 native speakers of Te Reo Mâori left
today (...)14

“’Mapudugun’ (mapu: ‘land’; dungu: ‘language’; ‘speak’: -n ‘nominalizer’) also

called Araucanian or Mapuche, is currently spoken with different degrees of vitality
in southern Chile and Argentina. Its speakers, the ‘Mapuche’, constitute the most
numerous indigenous groups in Argentina and South America.15

Elder Any person regarded or chosen by an Aboriginal nation to be the keeper and
teacher
of its oral tradition and knowledge. Elders, as individuals, are seen to have their
own unique strengths and talents.

“By ‘racism’ we mean the predication of decisions and policies on consideration of

race for the purpose of subordinating a racial group and maintaining control over
that group”16

An approach is a set of correlative assumptions about the nature of language and

language learning, but does not involve procedure or provide any details about
how such assumptions should translate into the classroom setting. Such can be
related to second language acquisition theory.

Second language acquisition or second language learning is the process by

which people of a language can learn a second language in addition to their native
language(s). Second language acquisition research" studies the psychology and
sociology of the learning process. Sometimes the terms "acquisition" and "learning"
13
Council of Europe, Mosaic: The Training Kit for Euro-mediterranean Youth Work, Council of
Europe, 2010.
14
Rebecca Püttmann, The Maori and Their Influence on New Zealand English, GRIN Verlag, 2009.
15
Martin Haspelmath, Uri Tadmor, Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook,
Walter de Gruyter, 2009.
16
Ernest Cashmore, James Jennings, Racism: essential readings, Sage, 2001.

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are not treated as synonyms and are instead used to refer to the subconscious and
conscious aspects of this process respectively (see second language learning).
Second language, target language, is used to refer to any language learned after
the native language, which is also called "mother tongue", it also includes third
language acquisition/multilingualism and language acquisition.

Method of teaching languages: structural method: grammar translation and

the audio-lingual method., the functional method include the oral approach /
situational language teaching and interactive method include the direct method, the
series method, communicative language teaching, language immersion,
the Natural Approach and more .

BODY

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Historical Context

Who are Mapuche?

Mapuche people are the indigenous people of southern Chile and Argentina. With
approximately 500,000 native Mapuche in Chile, the site of the future Mother
Temple of South America, they represent the largest indigenous nation in the
country. Traditionally centered in the southern regions of Chile, in recent years
thousands of Mapuche have begun gravitating north towards urban centers such
as Santiago and Temuco17.

Who are Maori?

The indigenous people of New Zealand are the Maori, belonging to the Polynesian
group.

Description of Culture and Religion

Mapuche culture:

In harmony with indigenous cultures across the Americas, nature and the earth
play a central role in Mapuche life and culture. Mapudungun is seen as the voice
of the earth in conversation with human beings. The name of the Mapuche people
is actually a joining of the words "Mapu" and "Che", and means "People of the
Earth".
In the book of poetry entitled, "Se Ha Despertado El Ave de Mi Corazon" (The Bird
of My Heart Has Awoken), Mapuche poet Leonel Lienlaf gives voice to a traditional
view of the cosmos .These beliefs are expressed most powerfully in the Nguillatun,
the Mapuche religion. The Nguillatun is the most important observance in Mapuche
religious practice, and is essentially a participatory sacred rite in which the
community gathers to offer prayers, to make sacrifices, to honor their ancestors
and to receive counsels from the elders. Malu Sierra, a Chilean journalist who has
written about the Mapuche people, describes the Nguillatun as "the communal rite
celebrated annually in the open air to invoke the favor of Ngenechen, who is the
Lord of the people."
"Ngenechen" is a figure central to Mapuche religious belief, and is representative
of all of the following: Father and Mother, Grandfather and Grandmother, Young
Man and Young Woman. He is described by one elder as "one God with many
colors".
"Machis", who serve as healers (and who are mostly women) act as a bridge
between the community and the spiritual world. There are also "lonkos", who serve
the community as elders, judges, and advisors. Unique in the history of native

17
http://www.chilean-temple.org/content/view/17/27/

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peoples in the Americas, the Mapuche are the only people to have resisted
encroachment and colonization by both the Incas and the Spaniards. In wars
lasting several hundred years, the Mapuche signed agreements with both groups
securing their autonomy and land rights. After Chilean independence from Spain in
1810, the Mapuche were subjugated by Chile in the late 1800s. Disease,
starvation, cultural assimilation, and internment decimated the Mapuche
population.

Maori culture :

The Maori held an essentially spiritual view of the universe18. Anything associated
with the supernatural was invested with tapu, a mysterious quality which made
those things or persons imbued with it either sacred or unclean according to
context. Objects and persons could also possess mana, psychic power. Both
qualities, which were Inherited or acquired through contact, could be augmented or
diminished during one's lifetime. All free men were tapu to a degree directly
proportional to their rank. Furthermore, an object or resource could be made tapu
and therefore off-limits. The punishment for violating a tapu restriction was
automatic, usually coming as sickness or death. The Maori had a pantheon of
supernatural beings ( atua ). The supreme god was known as Io. The two primeval
parents, Papa and Rangi, had eight divine offspring: Haumia, the god of
uncultivated food; Rongo, the god of peace and agriculture; Ruaumoko, the god of
earthquakes; Tawhirimatea, the god of weather; Tane, the father of humans and
god of forests; Tangaroa, the god of the sea; Tu-matauenga, the war god; and
Whiro, the god of darkness and evil. There were also exclusive tribal gods, mainly
associated with war. In addition, there were various family gods and familiar spirits.

The senior deities had a Priesthood ( tohunga ahurewa), members of which

received special professional training. They were responsible for all esoteric ritual,
were knowledgeable about genealogies and tribal History, and were believed to be
able to control the weather. Shamans rather than priests served the family gods
whom they communicated with through spirit possession and sorcery. Most public
rites were performed in the open, at the marae. The gods were offered the first
fruits of all undertakings, and slaves were occasionally sacrificed to propitiate
them. Incantations ( karakia ) were chanted in flawless repetition to influence the
gods . The spirits of the dead were believed to make a voyage to their final abode,
a vague and mysterious underworld.

18
http://www.everyculture.com/Oceania/Maori-Religion-and-Expressive-
Culture.html#ixzz15GQQIVV8

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Description of Culture and Religion:

Regional dialects

Dialects are a form of identity .all people have different dialects so can help t
recognize where someone came from.
Some of the main dialectical differences are the change of vowels so the words will
still sound roughly the same as the original dialect. When consonants are changed
sometimes it is hard to tune in to the dialect to understand it.

Mapudungun:
Mapudungun has a number of dialects. On the Chilean side of the Andes known as
Ngulumapu a number of variations of the Mapuche language are spoken.
The Pehuenche dialect is spoken by the Pehuenche living in the Andes Mountains.
The Huillice (also Huilliche, Veliche) dialect was spoken south of the Tolten River.
It now has several thousand speakers, most of whom speak Spanish as a first
language. These speaker live south of the Mapuche in Chile's Valdivian Coastal
Range, Osorno Province and on Chiloé Island.

Maori:
The Maori language (Te reo Maori) of New Zealand is a Malayo-Polynesian
language, commonly divided into four sub-families, namely, Indonesian,
Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian19. The New Zealand Maori language is
part of the Polynesian sub-family of languages which form a very closely related
group spoken for the most part within the Polynesian triangle. Thus Maori speech
is called the Polynesian language. This can be divided into east and west
Polynesian sub-groups. New Zealand Maori is an eastern Polynesian language.
The Maori dialects of Rarotonga, Tahiti, Hawaii, and all the islands of French
Polynesia are very closely related to the Maori language spoken in New Zealand.

Related with the origin of language, the linguistic evidence suggests that the
spread of the Polynesian language was from the direction of Asia , in spite of

This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited

19

by A. H. McLintock.

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comparisons that have been made between selected words from Polynesia and
the speech of some American groups .

Description of Culture and Religion

Use, respect and education of the Cultural Knowledge

Racial and Ethnic Minorities

Similar to latin America situation Australian territory comprises people from

different ethnic and racial backgrounds, in that case Maori people. Apart from
those conflicts, language also represent a matter of conflict. As mapuche situation
differences come from the less of understanding between both cultures where their
differences are accented and similarities are forgotten. Making in both cases, relay
hard the convivence and understanding. The heterogeneity of population in terms
of origin, language, culture, religion should be reflected in daily life, trying to get
knowledge from the diversity using it in positive way .

Some of the major forms of racist language is emphasis on racial and ethnic
difference
The language used to describe the majority group in Australia - people of Anglo-
Celtic descent- establishes this group as the norm against which other groups
(minority or 'out-groups') are judged. As a result, the physical features of
Australians of Anglo-Celtic descent are never mentioned, whereas those of other
groups are stressed, often to the exclusion of other, more relevant features. This
occurs frequently in news head-lines and short news reports. For example, 'Italian
youth ambushed in backyard', 'Turk 39, denies murder charge'.

It is generally not appropriate to refer to the cultural or ethnic background of a

person unless there is a valid reason for so doing.

Another characteristic of discriminatory language is the tendency to describe the

majority group, its actions and its members in positive terms, whereas minority
groups, their actions and their members are portrayed overwhelmingly in negative
terms. For example, a similar characteristic can be given different connotations
depending on the national, ethnic or cultural group .

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Stereotyping

A stereotype is a generalised and relatively fixed image of a person or persons

belonging to a particular group. For example stereotypes based upon supposed
national, cultural or racial traits include. Even positive stereotypes are
discriminatory because they take away from a recognition of diversity and a
person's individuality. Members of racial and ethnic minorities are far more likely to
be described in stereotypical terms than members of the majority group. Women
from minority groups are labelled with stereotypes that are both sexist and racist.
Racist and ethnic stereotypes are offensive and should be avoided.

Invisibility

Members of the majority group are portrayed as individuals: members of the

minority groups are often described only in terms of group characteristics. The
diversity of ethnic and racial minorities is often unacknowledged and unrecognised.
While individual members of the majority group are described in terms of their
occupational status, educational background, political sympathies, age and sex,
such a diversity is seldom reflected in the language used about members of
minority groups

Derogatory Labelling and Racial Slurs

Verbal conflict and aggression between the majority and minority groups has given
rise to a whole range of racial and ethnic slurs whose main function is to set the
targeted group apart from others by stressing their eccentricity, exoticism, or
undesirability. These include derogatory terms and nicknames .

Use of the term 'Australian"

The term 'Australian' commonly used to exclude Indigenous or immigrant minorities

or groups. 'Australian' should be used to refer to any member of Australia's
population, irrespective of the person's ethnic or cultural background or birth.

If it is important to specify the descent or ethnicity of a person or a group, or to

distinguish between people born in Australia or elsewhere, the following strategies
are recommended. It should be noted that some Australians prefer not to be
identified through origin or descent. This preference should be respected.

Quoting Racist Material

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If it is considered essential to use a specific quotation in which a discriminatory

expression occurs, the word sic, in enclosed brackets can be inserted immediately
after the expression in question.If the sense of a particular passage containing the
discriminatory language can be adequately conveyed in different words, and if it is
not essential to reproduce the original wording, the passage can be paraphrased in
such a way that the offending language is avoided. If an author finds a quotation
deeply offensive because of the discriminatory language it contains, it may be best
to omit it altogether.

Representation of racial and ethnic diversity in case materials and

illustrations

In selecting visual materials and illustrations care should be taken that racial and
ethnic diversity be represented and that people should be shown in a variety of
roles. Stereotyped portrayal should be avoided.

Native Language characteristic

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In the Aboriginal custom it is the oral tradition rather than documentation to

which people turn when seeking direction or validation. The Keepers of Knowledge
in the oral tradition are the Elders, and so it was from them that initial guidance was
sought. Each community wishing to establish respected for the native culture and
language must turn its attencion in Elders It is only with Elder support that
Aboriginal language and culture programs can succeed in achieving the goal of
language enrichment.

Mapudungun
Mapudungun, also formerly known as the Araucanian language, has been related
with the Penutian languages of North America. Other groups it among the Andean
languages20 and yet others postulate an Araucanian-Mayan relationship21 has
advanced the hypothesis that it is related to Arawak. Other authorities regard it as
an isolate language. It has had some lexical influence from Quechua and Spanish.
When the Spanish arrived to Chile, they found four groups of Mapuche:
the Picunche, the Huilliche, the Pehuenche, and the Moluche. The first one,
quickly conquered by the Spanish, did not have the same fortune than the Huilliche
that were not assimilated until the 18th century. The Mapuche settled in araucania
till now have retained their ethnic identity speaking Mapudungun.

Taori

Australian has always been rich in tradition, with complex social and governing
structures developed from a religious base that stems from creation. So Talking
about 'when Captain Cook discovered Australia' is not only insulting to the
Indigenous people of Australia, but is also incorrect. Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples were here at least sixty thousand years before the coming of the
Europeans. Avoid using texts or materials which perpetuate historic inaccuracies,
or which use euphemisms to describe the historical treatment of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples. For example the phrase 'when Aboriginal people
were moved to mission stations", hides the fact that force was used in dislocating
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their communities, from their
home land. To look for and use materials which incorporates an indigenous
perspective on history is always the best option.

20
(Greenberg 1987, Key 1978)
21
(Stark 1970, Hamp 1971); Croese (1989, 1991)

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Do we share celebrations?

- We Tripantu
Some people celebrate the Mapuche New Year between the 21st and 24th of June
when the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere)
is produced. But it is not official in our country.

- Maori Language Week

Every year, at the end of July, it is officially celebrated Maori Language Week.

Yesterday and Today for Maori and Mapuche

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Aboriginal22 Rights

Indigenous Australians

Linguistic discrimination of the Indigenous peoples of Australia is longstanding and

widespread. The linguistic portrayal of Aborigines in public and official documents,
textbooks and the media is and has been mainly negative and stereotypical. The
Indigenous peoples of Australia are described primarily in racial group terms, for
example 'blacks' or 'Aborigines', and almost never as individuals with personal
names. There are Terms to denote Indigenous peoples of Australia such as
Aborigine(s). Some Indigenous peoples of Australia object to being labelled
'Aborigines', because it is a term which was imposed on them by the British
colonisers, and because it is the general term for any Indigenous peoples in the
world. They prefer to be known by their specific names. Others, however, consider
the noun 'Aborigine(s)', which has to be capitalised to be acceptable. Also
Aboriginal is use to describe the Indigenous peoples of Australia but many
Indigenous peoples feel this use to be degrading.

So when using these terms musrt exist the certain about if its acceptable for the
people inferring to. There are many terms that must be avoided such as 'full-
blood(s)', 'half-caste'(s), 'part-Aborigine(s)', 'quarter-caste'(s), 'hybrid' are racist and
dehumanising terms that have been used to serve discriminatory purposes. Such
terminology is unacceptable and must not be used.

Mapuche :

In mapuche cause is well known the situation of Elena Varela, the documentary
maker who called the press attention to the unjustified and unacceptable
criminalization . She emphasized that the criminalization of the demonstrations is
accompanied by cruel repression, which she herself has witnessed, and finished
by requesting intervention by the Human Rights Council, to bring to an end the
practice by the state of Chile. For she, the charges laid against Mapuche people
have related to alleged crimes against property or material damage, and none to
crimes against life; moreover, some sentences have been passed on the sole
basis of statements by anonymous witnesses. the state has persecuted some of
those who have violated human rights during the dictatorship, it has not persecuted
those who currently violate the essential human rights of the Mapuche nation. In
the cases of two of the most recent killings of young Mapuche people, two

22
Glossary Western Canadian Protocol Framework for Aboriginal
June 2000 Language and Culture Programs

22 Language and Culture

Mapuche and Maori
 Grammar Theory II

unarmed young men were shot in the back. Added to this they have charged
members of the communities with criminal offences, and the application of the law
against terrorism, and to guarantee a dialogue on equal terms between the
government and the Mapuche nation.

About this situation , the paediatrician , José Venturelli, who have live between with
mapuche people, when asked he referred to the consequences of the repression
of the Mapuche communities, and the effects on their health of the humiliation they
receive. He also referred to Chile as a state of “apartheid”, in which the Mapuche
nation and indigenous people suffer oppression not unlike that experienced by the
black population of South Africa in the recent past, as a result of that country’s
policies and practices.

demonstrations by the Mapuche people for the protection of their fundamental

rights and ancestral territories, in the form of the application of the law against
terrorism and the detention of documentary makers who have reported on the
conflicts between Mapuche communities, on the one hand, and the state of Chile
and private interests on the other.

Valuing Aboriginal language and culture

Talking about an Aboriginal culture,its language and religious activities ,

mentioning expressions such as 'magic', 'sorcery', 'superstition' which imply an
inherent inferior quality when compared with non-Aboriginal (usually white,
western) religions and practices must be avoided. The terms 'religious practices',
'rituals', 'religion', 'religious beliefs' are recommended.

23 Language and Culture

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 Grammar Theory II

Influence of Colonization and Globalization

Colonization

From the perspective of the Aboriginal people, the post-contact period is

characterized as a time of great displacement and dislocation. Colonizing forces
disrupted the fundamental relationships and ways of being in the world. However,
time and experience have shown that Aboriginal people are survivors. Despite the
intensity of the assimilative forces, their world view continues to provide meaning,
direction and a sense of integrity to those who were given or who had made the
choice to listen.

Globalization23

From the 1960's to the 1980's, over 100,000 Mapuches have emigrated from the
rural south to the urban environment of the capital city, Santiago. Emigration,
urbanization and encroachment on Mapuche lands from large scale agriculture,
mining and forestry organizations in the south of Chile have accentuated the
acculturation of Mapuches into the dominant culture. Poor schools, losses of
language, of identity and of their ancestral and communal lands have had negative
effects on the Mapuche social structure and way of life.

in recent years the Mapuche have nearly returned to their previous population size,
and have made significant advances in strengthening their traditional cultural
foundation. The Chilean government has also made initial steps to redress
historical inequities, through such things as the creation of Mapudungun classes in
elementary schools in the south 24.
Another recent sign of the resurgence of Mapuche culture includes the opening of
the first Mapuche University in Puren. The Mapuche University, run by Mapuches
for the higher education of Mapuches, opened this spring. A machi and a lonko
both serve on the governing board of the Mapuche University.

23
The first time when it mentioned was in Declaration of Cultural Diversity UNESCO, (2001)
24
Taken from the article “aprueban alfabeto mapuche único (Oct 19, 1999). El Mercurio de S wiit
htantiago.

24 Language and Culture

Mapuche and Maori
 Grammar Theory II

Influence in language

Influence of Maori in English25:

Many Māori words or phrases that describe Māori culture have become part of
New Zealand English and may be used in general (non-Māori) contexts. Some of
these are:

Aotearoa: New Zealand. Popularly interpreted to mean 'land of the long white
cloud', but the original derivation is uncertain.
aroha: Love, sympathy, affection
arohanui: "lots of love", commonly as a complimentary close
haere mai: welcome, lit. come here
haka: a chant and dance of challenge (not always a war dance), popularised by the
All Blacks rugby union team, who perform a haka before the game in front of the
opposition
hāngi: a method of cooking food in a pit; or the occasion at which food is cooked
this way (compare the Hawaiian use of the word luau)
hongi: traditional Māori greeting featuring the pressing together of noses
hui: a meeting; increasingly being used by New Zealand media to describe
business meetings relating to Māori affairs
iwi: tribe, or people
kai: food
kapai: very pleasant; good, fine. From Māori 'ka pai'
kaupapa: policy or principle
kia ora: hello, and indicating agreement with a speaker (literally 'be healthy')
koha: donation, contribution
kōrero: to talk; to speak Māori; story
Kura Kaupapa Māori: Maori language school
mana: influence, reputation — a combination of authority, integrity, power and
prestige
Māoritanga: Māori culture, traditions, and way of life. Lit. Māoriness.
marae: ceremonial meeting area in front of the meeting house; or the entire
complex surrounding this, including eating and sleeping areas
Pākehā: people of non-Māori origin, especially those of European origin
piripiri: clinging seed, origin of New Zealand English 'biddy-bid'.
pōwhiri: ceremony of welcome
puku: belly, usually a big one
tāngata whenua: native people of a country or region, i.e. the Māori in New
Zealand (literally 'people of the land')
tapu: sacred, taboo; to be avoided because of this; (a cognate of the Tongan tabu,
origin of the English borrowing of taboo)

25
R. J. H. Matthews, Maori Influence on New Zealand English. World Englishesv, 1984.

25 Language and Culture

Mapuche and Maori
 Grammar Theory II

tangi: to mourn; or, a funeral at a marae

taniwha: mythical water monster
te reo: the Māori language (literally, the language)
waka: canoe, boat (modern Māori usage includes automobiles)
whānau: extended family or community of related families

Influence of Mapudungun in Spanish26:

Mapuche languages are spoken in Chile and to a smaller extent in Argentinain

two living branches: Huilliche and Mapudungun, there is some discernible lexical
influence from Quechua.

Achuncharse: (chuchu or chunchu, specie of owl which gets small when

confronted) lose courage and strength.
Allallay (allaalla, Mapuche expression): expression to refer, with enthusiasm,
something nice or pretty.
Cahuín: It is a kind of party, where people have fun and get drunk.
Chamanto (Chamalla, blanket wool) woven blanket.
Chape (chape, trapelün, tie) braid.
Cufifo (kufün hot water, ie. walking heated by excess alcohol): drunk and happy.
Curiche (kuru: black and che: people): person with dark or black skin.
Guarén (waren, be bad): rat.
Guata: Belly
Pichí (pichi or Pichin, small, little): urinate.
Irse a las pailas (payla o paylla, back or face up): falling back.
Malón: It means to attack to the enemy tribes. Now, it refers to organize a party in
a peaceful way. It is like a surprise party.
Pichintún: A little of something. A small portion.
Pilucho: naked.
Piñén (pigen o piñeñ) roughness of the skin, dirt,
Pololo (Pololo): boyfriend, casual or temporary common name given to several
beetles
Poncho (pontro, blanket): poncho.
Pucho (puchun, originally referred to the cigarette butt): cigarette
Quiltro (Kiltro originally: small dog, with eyes covered by hair, one of the two
indigenous breeds): mutt.
Trapicarse (trapi, chili? choke on saliva.
Trifulca: a battle.

26
Muñoz Urrutia, Rafael, ed. (2006). Diccionario Mapuche: Mapudungun/Español,
Español/Mapudungun (2ª edición). Santiago, Chile: Editorial Centro Gráfico Ltda

26 Language and Culture

Mapuche and Maori
 Grammar Theory II

27 Language and Culture

Mapuche and Maori
 Grammar Theory II

EXERCISES AND ACTIVITIES

Complete the crossword

1. ‘Soul of culture’
2. Native people of southern Chile.
3. Native people of New Zealand
4. Mapuche New Year
5. Language of Maori

5.
1.

2.

3.

4.

 Maori Language Week is celebrated in...

a) September - october
b) November - december
c) July - August

 Mapuche:
a) represent the largest indigenous nation in the country
b) belong to the Polynesian group
c) mean ‘black people’

28 Language and Culture

Mapuche and Maori
 Grammar Theory II

 According to the Maori influence in New Zealand English , Aotearoa means:

a) group of native people
b) New Zealand
c) people belonging to the Polynesian group

 Mapudungun is also called:

a) Araucanian
b) Te reo
c) We tripantu

 Mapuche groups live in Chile and...

a) Peru
b) Argentina
c) Bolivia

 In 2010, the government of New Zealand, decided to...

a) formalize its support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
b) sign against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
c) give some money to the Maori communities

29 Language and Culture

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 Grammar Theory II

CONCLUSIONS

Most attempts at integrating Aboriginal perspectives and subject area content

involve the integration of the Aboriginal content into the Education27 So, the
government and private entities should promote this language and develop some
school projects for children and parents. In that way the language can be passed
from generation to generation and doing this we can avoid discrimination against
ethnic groups.

It is really difficult not to realizing about the importance of respecting and

preserving values and beliefs of Aboriginal cultures. Trough investigations have
been shown that recovering ancestral language learning increases critical thinking
skills, creativity, and flexibility of mind in young children language learning. Exist
several aspect that get beneficed suc as economic Benefits related with the need
for communication between speakers of different languages , in this way the
spread of certain languages and the development of others would not have
occurred were it not for the need for people to deal with others . In that case
language is language used to conduct business such as International corporations
present in multiple cities in multiple continents, where people is required to function
fluently in several languages. Social phenomena related with economy is the
migration where the original Language are inevitably brought with them, and
communities are finding themselves needing to function in new languages in order
to fit in society and with this appear the second aspect the Cultural one .
Belonging to a determined community means in the worst scenery suffering
because the participation in society is restrained. It affects all the aspects of daily
life. But When peopleis able to break with intolerance and agreed to share the
language, they learn more about one another. The more they learn, the less they
see one another as "others28." Sharing cultures is woti no dude a meaningful
experience that only gives benefits to the participants.finally this is reflected in the
academic aspect , learning a second language is the underlying linguistic
knowledge that is acquired. Most of the rules of language such as form and
structure are not consciously understood , they are naturally accepted. When an
individual is faced with the challenge of learning a language later in life, the
process is much a much more conscious, academic, and theoretical one. Rules,
structures, and forms are identified and committed to memory while the learners
work to incorporate those new structures into their linguistic repertories29.

27
http://services.admin.utas.edu.au/equity/just_talk/#languageasVehicle
28
http://www.yourdictionary.com/dictionary-articles/Second-language-benefits.html
29
http://www.yourdictionary.com/dictionary-articles/Second-language-benefits.html

30 Language and Culture

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 Grammar Theory II

The preservation and enhancement of Aboriginal languages is a matter of national

pride and honour. Due to ignorance, we guess, this source of traditional knowledge
is dying with the Elders.

Rescuing native language through use of language is helful in many aspects as

mentioned before economically, culturally and academically .In the last one which
concerns to us is a excellent way to improve the ability of identifying structures and
forms , and with that recognize similar aspects in the learner's native language.
With no dude the process of learning a new language actually improves the
learner's understanding of their native language as well and means a significant
contribution to the national identity, its acceptance and incorporation in everyday
life. Doing it a bicultural society wold exists. It is imperative that immediate action
be taken30national and indigenous identity is dynamic and can shape each other in
positive ways.

Language a and culture are inseparable we cannot be teachers without being

teachers of culture 31 Culture to refer to the knowledge and practises of people
belonging to a particular social groups in this case national groups

The language education that we propose as an instructional system, must be

designed considering the objectives of the teaching/learning, the contents , the
tasks to be performed, the roles of students and the roles of teachers and
developed as a general school subject. With no doubt a many methods of
teaching languages exist32 : the structural view treats language as a system of
structurally related elements to code meaning (e.g. grammar), the functional view
sees language as a vehicle to express or accomplish a certain function, such as
requesting something and last but not least, the interactive view sees language as
a vehicle for the creation and maintenance of social relations, focusing on patterns
of moves, acts, negotiation and interaction found

Any of them we feel are a significant contribution wether if were develop just one
of the four basic skills listening, speaking, reading and writing or also the
socially-based skills summarizing, describing, narrating to be applied to
language classrooms that give opportunities to students to participate
actively and equally.

30
. Western Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Basic Education: Aboriginal Languages Project
Proposal (1996, p. 1)
31
Michaël Byram,Carol Morga, Teaching-and-learning language-and-culturen
32
Richards, Jack C.; Theodore S. Rodgers (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language
Teaching. Cambridge UK

31 Language and Culture

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 Grammar Theory II

REFERENCES

 A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Language of New Zealand, Kendall,

T., and Lee, S. (1820)
 Grammar of the New Zealand Language, Maunsell, R. (1894)
 Te Reo Maori – a Guide to the Study of the Maori Language, Smyth, P.
(1943)
 The Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, Tregear, E. (1891)
 A Dictionary of the Maori Language, Williams, H. W. (1957)
 First Lessons in Maori, Williams, H. W. (ed.) (1940)
 Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 64 (1955), “The Compound
Possessives in Maori”, Biggs, B.
 Complete Manual of Maori Grammar and Conversation, Ngata, A. T.
(1948)
 Decolonizing the mind, the politics of language in African literature,
Nairobi: Heinemann, 1986
 Leslie Ray, Language of the land: the Mapuche in Argentina and Chile,
IWGIA, 2007
 Richard McKenzie Neal, We the People: A Christian Nation, Authorhouse,
2010.

 Frances Henry and Carol Tator, Discourses of Domination. Univ. of Toronto

Press, 2002.
 Caroline Clauss-Ehlers, Encyclopedia of Cross-Cultural School
Psychology, Springer, 2009.
 R. J. H. Matthews, Maori Influence on New Zealand English. World
Englishesv, 1984
 Muñoz Urrutia, Rafael, ed. (2006). Diccionario Mapuche:
Mapudungun/Español, Español/Mapudungun (2ª edición). Santiago, Chile:
Editorial Centro Gráfico Ltda

32 Language and Culture

Mapuche and Maori