Māori language ‘at risk’ as a result of government policies, commissioner says

Prof Rawinia Higgins tells the Guardian that te reo Mori is under threat from the rightwing coalition despite long-running efforts to revive it

New Zealand's Mori language commissioner has described government policies to limit the use of the Indigenous language in the public service as a risk" to the half-century effort to revive it.

Any affront to the efforts that we have been making has to be taken seriously," the commissioner, Prof Rawinia Higgins, told the Guardian. We're seeing a reaction - only from a small corner of people, but enough that we don't want that to snowball."