Learning te reo and getting down with the tamariki
Thursday, 4 October 2018
Sarah Moore is taking part in a 12-week te reo course in an effort to show her irāmutu (niece) her whole family values her Māori heritage. This is her 11th column.
OPINION: We've been broken into groups and each has to perform a karakia and song along with our individual pepeha. In front of our entire class. Our group decided against Ma is White and aimed a little higher; we're currently learning how to sing Poi E. By rote.
What's worse is that I've been selected to sing the chant at the beginning: TE POI! PATUA TAKU POI PATUA KIA RITE…(note: I'm a bit shy and can't sing).
Most kids love waiata - and singing is woven throughout te ao Māori (the Māori world). So perhaps it's no great surprise that tamariki are a pretty big influence when it comes to inspiring adult te reo journeys.
**READ MORE:
* Fortnite gets a te reo makeover
* We all have the opportunity to keep te reo alive
* Seven ways to celebrate Te Wiki o te reo Māori**
My own decision to learn was inspired by my 18-month-old niece, who's Ngāti Tuwharetoa and Ngāti Whakaue and says 'Emelia' when you ask her 'Ko wai to ingoa?'. Others are inspired by their children and grandchildren who are coming home belting out songs, phrases and bits and pieces of te reo Māori.
So what's happening out there to get the kids kōrero-ing?
Thanks to Whaea Stacey Hema, the kids at Te Huruhi School on Waiheke Island are using song – with a twist. Hema takes songs such as Camila Cabello's Havana and rewrites them using Maori kupu, or creates dance pieces using Māori art forms – poi, haka and taiaha.
Hema says keeping te reo simple and relevant, but mostly fun, is key.
'As teachers. it's important we keep connecting te reo to the new 'in thing',' she says.
'By using modern songs everyone knows the kids get it quick and they're genuinely excited about it.'
As annoying as you might find teenage slang, kiwaha (idioms) are also playing their part. Who would have thought there was now a te reo equivalent for yeeyah (pāia), laugh out loud/lol (kaha te katakata / ktk), like a boss (me he tē), know it all (whakaputa mōhio), awesome (tau ke) or holy moly (Wēkeneru)?
That's just scratching the surface. Hema says that with students, teachers and leaders making an effort to use kiwaha, everyone's picking them up – and taking them home.
Hema also credits weaving concepts important to Māoridom into the curriculum such as tuakana-teina (older students teaching younger students) and manaakitanga (taking care of others and the environment). Her students head out each week to pick up rubbish: 'That's us being kaitiaki – guardians of the environment – taking care of Papatūānuku.'
Kids spending the school holidays playing Fortnite? Even that's been te reo-ised; there's a Māori version of the game's popular map. Other ways to get down with the tamariki? The film Moana was translated into te reo, and heavy metal fans should check out Alien Weaponry.
At St Mary's College in Auckland, te reo has shifted to the least chosen subject in the school to the second-most popular, behind French. For the first time in the school's history, there are students studying te reo in Year 13 – and demand has meant that, also for the first time, two te reo teachers will be appointed next year.
Matua Maurice Nelson's fellow teachers have, according to him, stepped out of their comfort zone.
'Some are learning te reo Māori in their own time, others have formed their own 22-strong kapa haka group. The support for one another here is undeniable. He waka eke noa – we are all in this together.'
Both teachers say that te reo students, both inside and outside of the school learning environment, need to be comfortable making mistakes and confident enough to give it a go.
Hema says there's been a big shift in her community: 'Before people would stare at me when I said kia ora to them; now they're saying it to me in the supermarket.'
Same thing that's happening in my workplace. Little steps.