Abstract

As part of the proceedings of the Language and Society Conference, a plenary panel discussion was organised on June 30 1998. This session was chaired by Wiremu Kaa from the School of Māori Studies at Victoria University. Te Haumihiata Mason, Kathy Dewes, Hine-i-haea Murphy, Heni Jacob and Mike Hollings contributed as panellists. Each spoke for between ten and twenty minutes on selected issues relating to the present status and future prospects of the Maori language, while also offering suggestions for academic linguists and sociolinguists about fruitful areas for collaborative research in the future. What follows is a series of discussions based on the talks of these speakers which were recorded and transcribed. The transcripts were edited by Terry Crowley and Janet Holmes, and were checked by the participants.