in improving wellbeing for Māori
The latest Stats NZ Wellbeing Statistics survey showed Māori were sitting at 31 percent for poor mental wellbeing in 2021, an increase of 5 percentage points in the last three years.
Māori are currently sitting at 13 percent to more likely to have good outcomes in all areas of wellbeing compared to Pākehā at 24.4 percent.
But people being able to speak more than a few words or phrases of te reo Māori has gone from 24 percent in 2018 to now sitting at 30 percent in only three years.
Wellbeing principal analyst Dr Claire Bretherton said preserving te reo Māori had many aspects that helped improve Māori wellbeing.
"Particularly people passing on the language to their families, their whānau is really important and really closely linked with wellbeing. We see a really close correlation between those things and also to do with linkage with ancestral marae and other things.
"So we know that the use of language and maintaining culture is really important to wellbeing for many Māori."