A research first has highlighted the important role of non-Māori learning te reo for the revitalisation of the language. Charlotte Muru-Lanning spoke to Dr Will Flavell about where the language is going. Before he started learning te reo Māori, Dr Will Flavell (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Whatua, Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui) was already fluent in English and … Read more
A recent Twitter thread, which asked Pākehā who are learning te reo to be gentle with Māori who don’t know the language, sparked a lot of conversation. Ātea editor Leonie Hayden reflects on her own experience, and offers some advice. It was a Pākehā friend who first told me that it wasn’t appropriate for her … Read more
In the new episode of Final Mix, music journalist Yadana Saw takes Anna Coddington out to road test songs from her new album Beams. Along the way the kōrero moves from te reo journeys to sexism in the music industry. Anna Coddington’s song ‘Night Class’ describes a uniquely Māori experience – taking night classes in … Read more
A distinctly colonial institution, banking has long ignored te ao Māori. Teaho Pihama believes investment in tikanga Māori at Kiwibank can have significant, positive outcomes for Māori. In early 90s Tāmaki Makaurau, when Teahooterangi (Teaho) Pihama was growing up riding his bike around the streets of Kingsland until the streetlights came on, the inner city … Read more
Celebrating a new series of the beloved Reo Pēpi bilingual board books, we have essays from Kitty Brown (Ngāi Tahu) who creates the books with her cousin Kirsten Parkinson, and Helen Steemson, a Pākehā mum determined to share te reo with her Māori son. Kitty Brown Recently, my two-year-old spoke her first words in te … Read more
Janaye Henry’s satirical video about Te Wiki o Te Reo was a viral hit on social media this year, but the writer and comedian wasn’t joking about her commitment to te reo. At the start of the year, I couldn’t speak te reo Māori. I could say “kia ora” and “kei te pēhea koe?” but … Read more
Simon Day didn’t learn te reo Māori as a child. Now a parent himself, he’s passionate about giving his sons the opportunity. My great grandfather, Tom French, was born under a tree at Waipapa marae in Kawhia, overlooking the black sands of the town’s harbour on the North Island’s west coast. As a young man … Read more
What’s the best way to get adults reading? Get them reading when they’re children – and there’s no better place to start than the Unity Children’s Bestseller Chart. AUCKLAND 1 Dog Man #9: Grime & Punishment by Dav Pilkey (Graphix/Scholastic, $19, 6-9) “You’ll howl with laughter!” 2 Lizard’s Tale by Weng Wai Chan (Text Publishing … Read more
Jacinta Gulasekharam is a socially driven entrepreneur and co-founder of period poverty start-up Dignity. We spoke to her about how that work feeds her drive to learn and honour te reo. Growing up in Feilding, Jacinta Gulasekharam felt both safe and strange. She was the only person of South Asian descent at her primary school … Read more
Two years ago, Haider Khan started his te reo Māori journey. Since then, he says, a new world has opened up for him, and he’s uncovered connections that he’d never noticed before. Haider Khan was inspired to take up te reo Māori at precisely the wrong time. After hearing a coworker at Spark delivering a … Read more
Today The Spinoff launches Ako, a new series made in partnership with Spark NZ to highlight their Kupu app, with a piece introducing three very different te reo Māori learners. Despite being indigenous to Aotearoa, the history of te reo Māori is a fraught one – it wasn’t until the late 1980s that it was … Read more
Māori language revitalisation researcher Dr Rachael Ka’ai-Mahuta explores what lessons can be learned here in Aotearoa from the current explosion in popularity of Korean culture. Earlier this year, I met an Aucklander whose teenage passion for K-pop sparked an interest in the Korean language and culture in general, and led to them learning Korean as … Read more
The Auckland that Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman found herself in as a nine-year-old was starkly Pākehā – to the point that she assumed Māori must be refugees, too. Ghahraman’s memoir, Know Your Place, is out this week and opens with a tense recounting of her family’s flight from Iran in 1990. Parts of this … Read more
Linda Burgess and Michael Hurst with quite different takes on a new book by New Zealand-born actress, playwright and writer Barbara Ewing. Michael Hurst This is a memoir very much written from the perspective of the present; evocative, authentic, humorous and poignant. Barbara Ewing approaches her subject via a series of diaries she kept all … Read more
Our Covid-19 gifs are now available in te reo Māori. Spread the word (while staying at home). The suite of excellent illustrations and gifs created by microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles and illustrator Toby Morris have had an undeniable impact during the Covid-19 crisis. They offer clear communication of sometimes complex concepts, and their popularity has seen … Read more
There was a lot of kōrero at Waitangi this year about women’s speaking rights, both at Waitangi and around the motu. Dr Rawiri Taonui looks at the history. The call for Māori women to speak on marae was reignited this year when Mere Mangu, the chair of Te Rūnanga ā Iwi o Ngāpuhi, welcomed Prime … Read more
As rumaki reo classes and other kura reo begin again for the year, RNZ journalist Te Aniwa Hurihanganui reflects on coming full circle back to te reo Māori. Why did I lose my reo? That’s the question I have been asking myself since I enrolled in Te Pōkaitahi Reo, a full-immersion te reo Māori programme, … Read more
With te reo Māori classes about to start for 2020, the ‘no vacancy’ signs are going up around the country as people continue to flock to learn our native language. There’s no denying that a reo-volution is underway across Aotearoa. At Te Wānanga o Aotearoa we have around 8000 people enrolled on our te reo … Read more
Jennifer Ward-Lealand’s dedication to acting, directing and te ao Māori saw her named the 2020 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year at a special dinner in Auckland last night. Alice Webb-Liddall speaks to her about how she hopes to nurture the future of the craft that has given her so much. Back in the 80s … Read more
What’s the best way to get adults reading? Get them reading when they’re children – and there’s no better place to start than the Unity Children’s Bestseller Chart. AUCKLAND 1 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (Amulet Books, $30, 8+) Briar at Little Unity writes: so this is the movie tie-in hardback edition, but it’s … Read more
A new fantasy series by Isa Pearl Ritchie focuses on a girl who struggles with anxiety and panic attacks. Here, Ritchie explains how her own childhood sparked Awa and the Dreamrealm. I was confused a lot of the way through my schooling. I would zone out a lot in class and I struggled to pay … Read more
The first two episodes of TVNZ’s new action series The Dead Lands were released to a worldwide audience of millions last night. Alice Webb-Liddall spoke to some of the cast and crew about the epic genre-bending show, and what it means for New Zealand television. When The Dead Lands was released in 2014, some called … Read more
New Zealand’s first language is endangered. We can’t afford to normalise misspelling and mispronunciation any more than it already is, writes Māori Language Commissioner Rawinia Higgins. If it really was just a joke, then why did some respond with racism? One of our most well-known food companies, Watties, launched a campaign recently that deliberately misspelled … Read more
Summer reissue: Calls to Marcus Lush’s Newstalk ZB show defending the incorrect pronunciation of Māori place names in Otago have been captured and shared by angry listeners. Should we despair at the callers’ attitudes, or celebrate the popular response, asks Māori Language Commissioner Rawinia Higgins First published 29 October, 2019. “It’s the way it is.” … Read more
Start learning te reo Māori anywhere in Aotearoa with this list of introductory, part-time classes. ‘Learn te reo Māori’ is at the top of a lot of people’s New Year’s resolutions. The problem is, it can be hard to enrol after the new year, which is typically when resolutions are meant to be resolved. Many … Read more
We were in the middle of drawing up this list when Potton & Burton quietly dropped a new book – it is optimistic and surprising and all kinds of wonderful, and here is our wee rave about it. Plus, in no particular order, here are the other nine best children’s books of 2019. 1 New Zealand … Read more
What’s the best way to get adults reading? Get them reading when they’re children – and there’s no better place to start than the Unity Children’s Bestseller Chart. These lists of the bestselling children’s books at Unity Wellington and Little Unity in Auckland cover the four weeks to November 29 2019. AUCKLAND 1 The Book … Read more
She’s been a stalwart on our screens and airwaves for two decades and could easily rest on her laurels, but the indefatigable Stacey Morrison is all about giving back to her community. Across Auckland on any given weekday, you’ll find a free te reo Māori class being taught, from Unitec and AUT’s popular classes to … Read more
Books editor Catherine Woulfe follows Wellington author Lawrence Patchett into his extraordinary story of heat and humanity and history repeating. The Burning River begins like the best kind of yarn. “Someone had been there. Someone strange. In the centre of his camp, a new circle of sooted rocks. A campfire, with the bones of a … Read more