Disney has found itself in the middle of a fight over an indigenous language

For decades, the New Zealand government in Aotearoa has attempted to eliminate te reo Māori, the language of Aotearoa’s indigenous Polynesian people. So far it has failed. As the current right-wing governing coalition works to suppress the language with the strongest political support in years, organizers, storytellers and te reo speakers claim they have an “eternal language” – and they have six te reo dubs of animated Disney movies. films, most recently with the November 2024 one Moana 2 Reo Maorithat work in their favor.

Both the modern New Zealand government and its tension with te reo began in 1840, when the representatives of the British Crown and the Māori signed the Treaty of Waitangi, the government’s constitutional document whose various bilingual versions have led to more than a century of consequences and research. In the following decades, colonization, assimilation, and English-language domination reduced the reach of te reo. In 1975, only 5% of Māori schoolchildren could speak te reoand by 1979 the language was considered endangered and on the road to extinction. Children were beaten for speaking their native languageeducated in schools that banned te reo, and surrounded by English-speaking media.

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As revitalization efforts increased in the 1970s and 1980s, advocates and activists paid special attention to how to bring te reo into broadcasting and education. Early revitalization successes were often tied to immersion programs with heavy community involvement, places where te reo always played in the background. In 1987, the Māori Language Act gave te reo Māori the same official status as English.

Today, Aotearoa has decades of te reo Māori radio programs, newspapers, TV shows and other broadcast options. And over the past seven years, Disney films have been re-released with increasing frequency, both in local theaters and through Disney Plus. This effort was led by Disney’s partnership with Matewa Media, a media organization created to contribute to reo Māori and Indigenous stories. Matewa started when producers Chelsea Winstanley and Tweedie Waititi saw their babies watching Moana in the background. They felt Moanawhich features Māori mythology, details and words (“moana” means ocean) was a great place to start, and audiences agreed: when the te reo version hit cinemas, bookings were up within 30 minutes sold out.

So far, the collaboration has also produced te reo versions of Coconut, The Lion King, Frozen, EncantoAnd Moana 2and Matewa Media is expanding beyond Disney films in March Shrek. Disney has previously collaborated on Indigenous language dubs Frozen 2 in Sami until Bambi in Arapaho, but Disney Reo Māori stands out for an ongoing collaboration, with Matewa returning year after year to adapt new cartoons. November 2024 Moana 2 also reached a new milestone: for the first time, a Disney Reo Māori film was released alongside its English counterpart.

Each film involves extensive localization efforts. Script translation requires translators to find a balance between meaning, flow, timing, humor and more. The dubs may also contain dialects: Coconut was translated into an east coast dialect, Ngāti Porou reo, while Frozen was adapted to the regional dialects of the South Island, Aotearoa’s coldest climate. Syncing these dubs with characters’ already animated mouths is a challenge in itself, and especially difficult because every Māori word ends in a vowel.

Those who adapted the films have also made efforts to ensure that the local cultures depicted in the Disney films are honored, such as by having voice actors take classes in Spanish and Mexican culture with Mexican comedian Edd Rivera for Coco Reo Maorior working with Mauricio Lozano and Hana Mereraiha on Colombian culture Encanto Reo Maori. This gave creators and fans alike the opportunity to see the similarities between global cultures: Coco Reo Maori was purposefully released in time for Matariki, an indigenous holiday celebrating the dead, similar to the Mexican Day of the Dead as seen in Coconut.

Modeling currently suggests that one in five Māori and one in 25 Aotearoa people speak te reo. Opponents have said te reo Māori is too small a language to be important to dub, that the reissues are a burden on taxpayers and that the films are a sign that Disney “spoiled by extra wakefulness.” The New Zealand Herald shut down Facebook comments for racist comments on the issue, or, as the Herald described them, “the same stale, jealous, petty, no-life, hōhā, pathetic nonsense spewed by people who would .” hijack a post about a Disney movie just for the sake of enjoying it.

The reception of each film went beyond the silver screen, with red carpet premieres, screenings across the country and field trips for classes to see the new versions. The films join other recent releases that prioritize revived endangered languages, such as Kneecap (Irish), Prey (Comanche), and Sooyii (Blackfoot), as well as recent ones originally in Māori films such as The convert And Ka Whawhai Tonu. For Harrison Tu, a Texan 11,000 kilometers away from Aotearoa, Disney Reo Māori has been a way to connect with a language despite the distance. He keeps the reissues running in the background as a way to hear the language in everyday life, between online lessons and practice. “I went to sleep with their Disney soundtracks a few times,” he says (they are on Spotify). He has never been seen Encanto in english, only in spanish and soon in te reo.

As Matewa Media’s projects have increased in number, so too have government disinvestments and the suppression of te reo. The new coalition government, sworn in a year ago, is the most conservative in a generation. Since the coalition came to power, ministries have been pressured to do so stop using te reo names and te reo in government communications, while $30 million in funding will be cut for teachers to teach Māori, affecting 2,000 teachers and their students. Major cuts to jobs and funding have come into force at Whakaata Māori, a publicly funded Māori television channel, and an urgent investigation It was taken to the Waitangi Tribunal, a commission that deals with treaty violations, and alleged the government is “causing significant irreversible harm to reo Māori.”

“It’s constant. Weekly attacks; whether it is the Māori language, whether it is the Tribunal, whether it is a kaupapa Māori (the Māori way/approach). It is a weekly and ongoing attack,” said Labor Party Māori development spokesperson Willie Jackson said to Parliament’s press gallery. This escalated even further last November, with the introduction of the Treaty Principles Bill, a conservative reinterpretation of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, which opponents say deliberately excluded Māori consultation and could spell the end of the original founding treaty . In a press release, Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi said: “This government is waging war on our existence as Māori and on the very fabric of this nation.”

Cultural victories are not political victories. But that doesn’t mean pop culture doesn’t have power. “It is important to be seen on film, especially for our children, our grandchildren (…). Normalizing something like this is very important,” says Hinetu Dell, who plays Abuela Alma. on the Encanto Reo Maori red carpet. These reissues can act as teaching tools, sources of inspiration, and thorns in the eyes of those who want to tackle te reo.

On Māori Language Day 2024, the lights were dimmed at the Light House Cuba cinema in the capital Aotearoa. Encanto Reo Maori started playing for a small audience of all ages. The film had no subtitles, only te reo and the resonant singing voices of Hinetu Dell, Te Waimarie Ngatai-Callaghan (Mirabel) and Poroaki Merritt-McDonald (Bruno). The dubbing was seamless, from the mouth movements to the flow of musical numbers, with the film working as a fully te reo Māori production. Some children may only know the te reo version. As Awatea Wihongi (who voices Luisa) told Pacific Media Network last yearthat makes this generation happy.