Te reo Māori is one of the official languages of New Zealand. Many migrants from nonEnglish speaking nations, however, are surprised at the monolingualism of New Zealand and the apparent tokenism in use of te reo. Often migrants arrive ready to acquire a level of te reo Māori because of their own multilingual background. This paper explores the extent to which Māori Television provides cultural resources for migrants to increase te reo skills and vocabulary and to engender an interest for further engagement with te reo Māori, and suggests that engaging in learning te reo contributes to Māori Television's language revitalisation outcomes. Improved understanding of the distinctive use of te reo Māori within the everyday lexicon of New Zealand English contributed to a sense of belonging for many of the participants. All of these findings suggest the level of support migrants can offer Māori language revitalisation initiatives may be unrecognised.Te reo Māori is one of the official languages of New Zealand. Many migrants from nonEnglish speaking nations, however, are surprised at the monolingualism of New Zealand and the apparent tokenism in the use of te reo. Migrants arrive in New Zealand ready to engage with a level of te reo acquisition because they often come from sophisticated multilingual backgrounds where speaking and understanding many languages on a daily basis is not uncommon.Viewing Māori Television is one way such expectations can be fulfilled. This paper, taken from a larger quantitative and qualitative research project of 70 migrants, presents findings from the qualitative section comprised of 25 participants from a range of ethnic backgrounds talking about their experiences of and observations on their engagement with te reo Māori via Māori Television in either focus group discussions or one-on-one interviews.Susan Nemec is a PhD Candidate in Film and Media Studies at the University of Auckland. She has a background in producing and directing for both broadcast television and corporate video productions. More recently she has been teaching English and Media Studies at large Auckland multicultural secondary schools. Her research was first inspired by her experience of teaching refugees and new migrants and conversations with their parents.

This paper offers a theoretical model to analyse an example of Indigenous media through an Indigenous lens and discusses its potential to increase audiences in other alternative media. Adapted from New Zealand Māori filmmaker and philosopher Barry Barclay’s idea of the ‘fourth cinema’ and a metaphorical ‘communications marae’, 1 the model has been applied to New Zealand’s Indigenous broadcaster, Māori Television. This article discusses the model and suggests that the ‘communications marae’ has the potential to be used by non-mainstream media providers to, not only address their own audiences, but also to enrol wider communities in alternative perspectives to the ‘mainstream’. Research has demonstrated how Indigenous broadcasting can serve its own audience while also attracting wider, non-Indigenous audiences. However, this paper’s focus is a case study of migrants engaging with Māori Television because it is migrants who frequently operate outside of established power relationships and represent an often unrecognised niche audience segment in mainstream media. The model demonstrates the potential pedagogical role of the broadcaster and how its content can make a positive difference to migrants’ lives and attitudes towards Indigenous people through its ability to counter the, often negative, representations of Indigeneity in mainstream media. Outside of Māori Television, migrants have limited access to an Indigenous perspective on the nation’s issues and concerns, which calls into question both democracy and migrants’ ability to engage in civic society. Migrants need information to negotiate and weigh up important tensions and polarities, to understand multiple perspectives inherent to democratic living and to evaluate issues of social justice and to solve problems based on the principles of equity. Indigenous media, as in all alternative media, has a role to play in questioning or challenging accepted thinking and to present counter hegemonic discourses to all citizens in participatory democratic societies.