Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori

NAU MAI, WHAKATAU MAI KI TE WIKI WHAKANUI O TE WIKI O TE REO MĀORI!


As we all know, it was the celebration of the Tongan language last week and this week is the celebration of our Indigenous language in Aotearoa - tō tātau nei reo taketake, ko te reo Rangatira, or the Māori language. Nō reira e ngā tauira, e ngā kaiako hoki, nau mai whakatau mai ki te wiki whakanui o te reo Māori! He mihi aroha tēnei ki a koutou e hāpai ana i te reo!

Throughout this week, I will be uploading a list of kupu hou, or new words, as well as some Māori phrases and rauemi, or resources for you to practice using and also to go towards a quiz that I have created for our final zoom this Friday.

I would like to leave you all with a few facts about te reo, a whaktaukī, or proverb to encourage you all with as well as one fun phrase that you can use with your mates and whānau.

So.... not only is it Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, or the celebration week of the Māori language, it is also Māhuru Māori. Māhuru meaning September and Māori meaning well... Māori and what this represents is that it is a month that acknowledges not only the Māori language, but also Māori success and the social Māori movement.

It was September 14, 1972 which was only 49 years ago today that a petition was presented to parliament in order for the Māori language to be recognised in New Zealand. It was on that same day, except in 1975 that Dame Whina Cooper led a group from Te Hāpua to Wellington by foot to raise awareness around Māori land confiscation, which had unfortunately encouraged language loss and cultural alienation for Māori (as Māori had to leave their ancestral lands and move to larger cities to gain income as that was the new way of living in New Zealand). Despite these political movements by Māori, te reo wasn’t actually officially recognised by the government until 1987, which was 15 years after the petition was presented. The initiative Māhuru Māori which was created in 2014. The goal with that initiative, or movement is to have 1 million kaikōrero reo Māori, or te reo Māori speakers by 2040, which is only 19 years away.

Here is one of my favourite whkataukī, or Māori sayings that encourages me to keep the language flowing is: “Mā te hē ka tika” - from our mistakes, we can learn or correct ourselves. People are afraid of failure, they get whakamā, or embarrassed to try new things and often regret it later on in life, so in order for us to try new things, we need to first attempt it - once we’ve done that, we will know if we like it or not. if it went well, ka pai - that’s great! If it didn’t go well, at least we can say we tried, or at least we can look at it from a different angle or perspective the next time we want to try it.

And finally, a fun little statement that I like to use and use often is: “Kei te aha?” - “Sup, up to?”
Not only can you use it with your mates and whānau, but teach them what this means and how you can use it. You can use it everyday with your whānau during lockdown, or simply message it to your mates to see what they’re doing and to check in with them during these interesting times.

That’s all from me now. I will be adding a list of resources below for you to check out, as well as some cool pages on Instagram to connect with also. Kia kaha te reo Māori!

Ngā mihi maioha, nā
Te Aweawe

Rauemi:

Māhuru Māori
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Māori Language Petition
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Land March
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Kupu App
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


Instagram Links:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Awesome info sis