Online database looks to boost Cook Island Maori

Transcript

An award winning online database is hoping to play a part in reviving the Cook Islands Maori language.

The Cook Islands Internet Action Group recently won 'Best Digital Leader' at the Pacific ICT Awards for their language database which now has thousands of users.

Project leader Ano Tisam told Koro Vaka'uta how the database was created.

ANO TISAM:  We were having a few discussions with the local university here about creating an online version of the old dictionary that we had around and I was given an electronic copy of one of the old dictionaries and told to go and figure out what I could do with it.  It took me maybe about three months and I got the first prototype and then it kind of just kicked off from there.  Essentially what it does, it is just an online version of the Cook Islands Maori language which is actually endangered.  You can just type in a word in either English or Maori and out comes a translation.

KORO VAKA'UTA:  Has it got most of what you wanted or all of what you wanted on the database or is it continually progressing and developing?

AT:  When we started off we had about 6,000 words from that initial collection of words we got but we are adding new words, people are contributing new words.  We are also getting words from a whole bunch of different places and that's being added to the database.  So that's continually growing and developing and we're just trying to see where this is gonna go because there has been a lot of interest of doing stuff with the language.  To try and reinvigorate it with the younger speakers coming through because there is a fear it might not last into the next century and stuff like that.

KV:  Are you seeing an impact in terms of the youth or the young Cook Islanders picking this up as a tool to learn?

AT:  I went down to New Zealand last year and the response we got from a lot of people down there has been really positive.  In terms of it being a tool, right now we are just starting off and the first version is just to have at least a resource for people to look up words really, really quickly.  We got some feedback while we were down in New Zealand and people were asking for other learning resources so our challenge now is to try and figure out how we are going to go about building that.  We probably need a bit more funding to get the ideas and then build tools for the language or build other initiatives and stuff like that.  So what we've done is we've sent down a survey to all our users and we are getting some feedback before we decide where to transition to after this project.

KV:  We had a story last year of a Samoan language app and you've got this database now as well.  It really seems like digital might have to lead the way in terms of a resurgence of the language.

AT:  It's definitely something that we've identified as the way forward because a lot of kids, they're into technology and stuff and this might be one way to engage them.  So far from what we've got back in terms of feedback is that we seem to be on the right track.  It's just having dialogue and figuring out what are the key things that we need to do to help preserve, especially Pacific languages, because a lot of them are starting to become endangered.