23 The suppression of Te Reo Māori came in a much quicker and heavier wave than that of Welsh. It was directly tied to land dispositions and racialised government. The dishonouring of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi) by the British was foundational to the colonial injustices faced by the Māori people. At its core, this treaty aimed to “protect Māori rights” (Ka’ai-Mahuta 2011: 197). Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, both governments employed numerous methods of linguistic assimilation, through both ideological and physical suppression, with the attempt to nurture the belief “that English is a ‘neutral’ space and other languages are not [neutral]” (Morris 2016: 59). Through artistic and literary competitions, archival revivals and dictionaries, the Eisteddfod has acted as the central hub of cultural resurgence, with a focus on the language. Annually, the competition is held in either North or South Wales, a tradition that dates back to 1851 (Löffler 2020: 240). Over the centuries, it has “transitioned slightly away from the core competitions and toward a more festival-like environment” (Rhodes 2021: 561). Similar in nature to the Eisteddfod is the Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival. Held biennially, “each time in a different region of [Aotearoa] and hosted by the local iwi”; established in 1970, it is “essentially the Olympics of Kapa Haka”, a traditional Māori art form (Royal-Taeao 2020: 47). The overall aim of the festival is to contribute “positively to the overall health and social wellbeing of whānau, as well as significantly playing a key role in revitalising te reo Māori” (Te Matatini 2026). The fundamental similarity of both festivals is that they revitalise language through acting as sites of intangible cultural heritage. A term developed by UNESCO, it re- fers to: traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts. (UNESCO, 2011). The normalisation of language is paramount to its revival. The Eisteddfod has a Welsh language rule, which makes it the primary language on the Maes (field/site) and the official language used throughout the entirety of the festival. Bilingualism is standard in Wales, with English historically being positioned above Welsh, so having a cultural festival dedicated to language immersion is crucial, as it creates a space of normalcy where Welsh speakers are not “having to justify language use daily” (Lewis 2025: 28). There are spaces within the festival for people of all fluencies to learn and speak the language, such as “Maes D (Welsh Learner’s
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