An ambivalence characterising the provision of English language instruction in New Zealand's Maori schools is traced to the establishment of the schools in the recent period of biculturalism and retribalisation, and to the role of the schools in indigenous ideology. The article discusses the effects of the ambivalence on English language provision in the Maori schools. The discussion is located in the wider context of uncertainty surrounding the role of the Maori language as either an ethnic language concentrated in the Maori sector of the New Zealand population or as a civic language for all New Zealanders.