Being the only Mangarevan speaker in Aotearoa, doesn’t seem to bother Ena Manuireva.
This may be because he’s a man with a mission - to keep his language, and culture, from going extinct.
Ena Manuireva, right on guitar, is on a quest to save the severely endangered Mangarevan language Photo: David Williams
Mangareva is the central and largest island of the Gambier islands in Ma'ohi Nui/French Polynesia. It’s just over 1600km southeast of Tahiti, and is best known for its black pearls.
The more romantic translation of its name is, floating island/mountain, but it can also be translated to island of Reva – which is the name of a poisonous fruit.
With a fluctuating population of 1000, only a fifth - around 200 people - speak fluent Mangarevan. The eldest speaker being 86 years old and the youngest 46 years.
Younger generations have few opportunities to learn it, or be inspired to learn it. It was removed from the local school curriculum in 2014, funding is lacking, and it's not being spoken in many homes.
Ena says the position Mangarevan finds itself in, is due to the influence of a more “dominant culture”.
“It’s a total immersion of French. Especially for the kids. I was there to do my MPHIL [Masters in Philosophy], and I was asking the kids ‘how do you identify yourself? Mangarevan, French or Other?’ because there are seven different regional languages in French Polynesia, with all the dialects, [and] they all said to me ‘we are French’.”
While sparking interest in the ‘kids’ is a must, Ena says the older generations have a part to play.
“When people retire [on Mangareva], they don’t do anything. They water the garden. They would have better lives, if they were able to teach. They should be telling the stories, teaching the kids in Mangarevan. You know, you can’t water your garden for 12 hours, every day.”
Mangareva is not alone when it comes to needing urgent help, if their failing culture and endangered language is to survive.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), more than a third of the world's 7000 languages are currently classified as endangered, and over half could be extinct by 2100. With only 200-odd speakers, Mangarevan is considered "severely endangered".
Dr Arianna Berardi-Wiltshire, senior lecturer in linguistics, Massey University Photo: Supplied
Massey University's senior lecturer in linguistics, Dr Arianna Berardi-Wiltshire, says languages are not just tools for communication, but an inherent part of the history and lives of its speakers. She says that by “taking a superficial view to language revitalisation and say, 'well, it's only spoken by 5 people, may be it's not worth it', just misses the point completely.”
Decolonisation, Ena says, is a big part of the survival plan, but it's a process that's going to take a long time.
“I've got some nephews, who have children as well, [and] they're still into this typically western view. They are pearl divers. They are fishermen. But they still think that French is very important because it gives you jobs, and if you go to Tahiti, if you don't speak Tahitian, you speak French. It should be the other way around where French speak Tahitian when in Tahiti and Mangarevan when in Mangareva.”
As a speaker of seven languages, he says it’s important and respectful to learn even the basics of a language when visiting or living in a new place. This is the reason why both Ena and his Yorkshire wife Sally, have been learning te reo Māori. Ena has an advantage on that front; Mangarevan has a lot in common with Māori, as well as Rarotongan and Tahitian.
Ena’s disconnection to his culture and native tongue, can be linked back to 1968, when his Dad decided it was no longer safe for them to live on the island.
Ena Manuireva is the only speaker in New Zealand of the severely endangered Mangarevan language Photo: David Williams
“In [19]66, the French came and did the nuclear testing. So my Dad, who was a fisherman and also a pearl diver, decided we had to leave, because he could see, even in the lagoon, the water and the fish [were] getting poisonous.”
He was just 6-months-old when they moved, but says that effects from tests carried out at the Mururoa atoll, just 400km away from Mangareva, are still being felt today.
Even though it was their intention, the family never returned to the Island to live. This was because, by time the 193 tests stopped in 1996, they’d put down roots and the six children had grown up.
This upbringing saw them learn French and Tahitian, but only a small amount of Mangarevan through their Dad.
After thirty years of living abroad in France, Nottingham and Scotland, Ena says it was Skype conversations with his Dad who was the inspiration for reconnecting with his culture – but it wasn’t until moving to Aotearoa in 2011, that he really immersed himself in relearning Mangarevan and beginning his mission, through academia, cultural consultation and promotion, to save it.
As part of this immersion, Ena has taken on the role as Tahiti Village Coordinator for Pasifika 2020. Here, he will be promoting Mangareva and all of Ma'ohi Nui, to the masses.
He says he’s hoping to set the record straight, that although Tahiti is the most populated island, it’s not the only island in Ma’ohi Nui/French Polynesia. There are 5 archipelagos, and they all have their own culture and tradition – of course including Mangareva, a cultural e atoga (treasure).
