“Kia Kaha te Reo Māori
Let’s make the Māori language strong”
Māori Language Week is the annual campaign led by the Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori (The Māori Language Commission) to get more New Zealanders speaking, hearing, and experiencing te reo Māori. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori has been celebrated each year from 1975 September 14, and commemorates the presentation of the 1972 Māori language petition to parliament. For Te Wiki o te Reo 2021 we wanted to make most of this opportunity to add to our kete mātauranga (basket of knowledge). Each day we challenged ourselves to engage with te reo in different ways.
Day 1: Kupu Hou. Our first day’s challenge was a simple encouragement to use kupu (words) in te reo throughout the week as much we could. The following was a guide for some basic te reo words and phrases. Our team did their best to incorporate as many as they could throughout the week!
Day 2: Māori Language Moment. One of the goals of this year’s Te Wiki o te Reo was to break the record for the most people celebrating te reo Māori at the same time. At 12pm on Tuesday, Kiwis all over the country participated in speaking, reading, watching or singing te reo Māori. We jumped on zoom to sing some Waiata together, including Tihei Mauri Ora and Te Pūtōrino a Raukatauri, with participants including our Chairman, a few of our volunteers and a special guest from one of our Outreach partners. It was an excellent team time and a great way to refresh ourselves during the middle of the day.
Day 3: Quiz time! The team participated in a little bit of friendly competition to see how much te reo Māori we knew.
Day 4: Pepeha. Rā Whā o Te Wiki (the fourth day of the week) was an important day for our team, a chance to learn about and share our pepeha. Pepeha is a way of identifying who we are and telling people about where we come from and whom we are related to. Pepeha is a cultural way to introduce yourself, it helps to make connections and build relationships with others. The team learnt about, then wrote their own Pepeha, a few of them shared at our team meeting. It was great to be able to find out a bit more about each other and to continue to build the community of Raukatauri.
During Te Wiki o te Reo Māori we were also excited to learn that the awesome Kiwi band, SIX60 were donating all of the proceeds from the sales of their newest single. Titled ‘Pepeha’, this was their first original bilingual composition, as part of the newly established Waiata Anthems Week. We were deeply touched by their generosity.
Day 5: We ended Te Wiki o te Reo Māori with a whakataukī (Māori proverb) that felt especially relevant for the lockdown times.
“Te reo Māori is the key to understanding our past, our present, and our future as united peoples of Aotearoa. It is a living entity that draws its mauri or life force from the user. It opens the door to a different world that invites you to learn more about your connections to the taiao or environment and your place in the whakapapa or genealogy of the universe.”
It’s not that long ago that te reo Māori was in real danger of dying out, two generations ago children were being told not to speak te reo Māori in schools. Initiatives like Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, and everyone who is willing to engage with it, contribute to the continued revitalisation of te reo Māori. Even though the official week for the language has finished, the Raukatauri whānau is committed to learning about and with te reo Māori and with Māoritanga (Māori culture) as we recognise its importance to Aotearoa as a nation, and to each person individually.