Growing Fäeag Rotuḁm ta in a Global Context

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Tutur pou ta’a

(That is a hardwood post)

_{The meaning of this Fäeag Rotuḁm ta proverb is that some people are the pillars of the community: they can be relied upon when hard work is required.}

Article by Dr Angela Bland, Facilitator, Tui Tuia | Learning Circle
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‍_‍I have chosen this proverb because of the imagery of pillars and posts to represent community leaders. As with many proverbs, their meanings can move across cultures and contexts. The hardwood posts and pillars lead language maintenance and revitalisation in New Zealand, across the Pacific and globe, no less, for Fäeag Rotuḁm ta.

Fäeag Rotuḁm ta is an Austronesian language. It is one language of the 1256 subgroup of languages belonging to the Austronesian language family (Ethnologue n.d.). The classification of Fäeag Rotuḁm ta is difficult because there are a large number of loan words from Gagana Sāmoa and Lea Faka-Tonga because of the historical cultural exchange over the history of the Pacific. However, Fäeag Rotuḁm ta has been identified as a part of the Central Pacific branch of the Austronesian family, closely related to Vosa Vakaviti (McCarthy, 2000). Its relatedness to Vosa Vakaviti is especially noticeable when Polynesian loan words are stripped away (Pawley, 1979).

Fäeag Rotuḁm ta, its culture and identity, is used worldwide in a range of countries outside of Rotuma, as part of the diaspora. It is also taught in different learning spaces such as community groups who capture the language through music and other cultural forms. For this article, I would like to focus on four significant geographical spaces where Fäeag Rotuḁm ta is surviving and growing: Rotuma itself, Fiji, New Zealand and in a geographical cyberspace.

The first space where Fäeag Rotuḁm is spoken is in Rotuma. Titifanue, Varea, Varea, Kant, & Finau, (2018) state that Fäeag Rotuḁm ta survives on the island of Rotuma itself as the language of the Rotuman people. Nearly all people on Rotuma use Fäeag Rotuḁm ta. The first three years of instruction at school uses Fäeag Rotuḁm with English as the medium of instruction after this (Vamarasi, 2005). There are four primary schools and one high school in Rotuma (Malha’a Primary School, Paptea Primary School, Motusa District School, Christ the King Primary School, and Rotuma High School) (Parliament of the Republic of Fiji, May 10, 2018). The church is one place in Rotuma where there is written Rotuman in the form of a hymn book and Bible. However, outside of the church, there is little secular literature available.

The second space where Fäeag Rotuḁm ta survives is in Fiji. Varea, Titifanue, Varea, & Kant (2020) state that Rotumans make up less than two percent of Fiji’s population, and as a minority Indigenous ethnic group in Fiji, they have continued to remain mostly hidden and silent in political affairs. While English, Fijian and Fijian – Hindi are recognised as official languages, Fäeag Rotuḁm ta does not have this status even though it is a recognised Indigenous language and Rotuma politically forms part of the Republic of Fiji. In Suva, Fiji, there is a Rotuman church where Rotuman language is actively used. Hopf, McLeod & McDonagh (2018) indicate that Fiji has become increasingly multilingual. In their study, participants spoke an average of three languages, ranging between one and six languages. The main language reported to be spoken across all groups for participants in the study (students, mothers, fathers, child-minders, teachers) was Standard Fijian (44.1%), followed by Fiji Hindi (19.4%) and English (19.4%), then a Fijian dialect (16.7%), and Fäeag Rotuḁm ta (0.4%). Hopf et al recommend that language teaching in Fiji should aim to “create linguistically multi-competent students . . .” (Hopf et al, p.89). Similarly, as in Rotuma itself, it appears that in Fiji the Rotuma community and Fäeag Rotuḁm ta is marginalised with intergenerational transmission dependent on families and their family language policies.

The third space for Fäeag Rotuḁm ta is in New Zealand. Fäeag Rotuḁm ta is the only Pacific language group where the number of speakers has grown since the 2006 census in New Zealand. According to the 2018 census, the number of Rotuman people in New Zealand was 981 (from 621 in 2006) with a median age of 26.5 years. However, there is an indication that this number is inaccurate. Alfie Prasad, from the Centre for Pacific Languages in Auckland and a member of the Rotuman Cultural Committee (HATA Collective) shares that, “many Rotuman members in the country did not register their ethnicity in the last census . . . There's a huge number of Rotumans or part Rotumans that are in New Zealand that don't register as Rotumans, and I think the number if we were to count, would be close to 2000 Rotumans altogether." (Suisuiki, 2022). The census shows the 95.7% of Rotumans speak English with 22.3% who speak two languages of which, it would be assumed that Fäeag Rotuḁm ta, would be one of those two languages (Statistics, New Zealand, 2018). Hence, revitalisation has been a focus in New Zealand. The first Fäeag Rotuḁm week was celebrated in 2018 (Ministry for Pacific Peoples, 2022). It was celebrated recently from the 7 May to 13th May in 2023. Alongside eight other Pasifika languages in New Zealand Fäeag Rotuḁm ta, is included in the Pacific Languages Strategy for 2022-2032 of which the aim is to support community-led action for language revitalisation and maintenance. A growing opportunity to learn Fäeag Rotuḁm ta I is through the Centre for Pacific Languages in Tāmaki Makaurau who have been giving Fäeag Rotuḁm ta classes since 2016. These are free online classes available to anyone to learn.

The fourth space is the Fäeag Rotuḁm ta diaspora which has occurred by the geographical cyberspace of Fäeag Rotuḁm ta and Rotuman people. Many Rotumans leave Rotuma once their secondary education is complete. The wider Rotuman language, culture and population diaspora is connected significantly by a geographical cyberspace using a growing Facebook page. Titifanue, Varea, Varea, Kant & Finau (2018) state that the website and now the Facebook group have provided a platform for the reinvigoration of Rotuman culture and identity. Ethnologue (2023) additionally indicates that the digital language support for Fäeag Rotuḁm is ‘emerging’ which is defined as “the language has some content in digital form and / encoding tools” (Ethnologue, 2023).

To finish, I will end this report with another Rotuman proverb:

E le’e se ‘ua e tōtō ai

(The rain will stop; no storm lasts forever)

The meaning of this proverb is that there will be challenges in life, but the tough times will pass. The revitalisation of Fäeag Rotuḁm ta is bringing a number of challenges, but there are initiatives, individuals, organisations, communities, and a range of technologies creating as many hardwood posts connecting together to overcome these challenges and continue to clear the skies.

I would like to acknowledge the feedback from Fäeag Rotuḁm ta and cultural community leaders at the Centre for Pacific languages in Auckland, for their feedback when writing this article. If you are unable to locate any of the references, please contact Angela Bland at angela.bland@auckland.ac.nz

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