'It can be done': Hundreds gather to hear te reo revitalisation strategies

Thursday, 20 May 2021

Sir Tīmoti Kāretu (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu), who named Te Kaiaotanga o Te Reo, is one of several key speakers at the top of the South's first ever Māori language symposium.

Revitalising te reo Māori will require hunger, commitment and demand time, but it’s not impossible.

That’s one of many wise words spoken by Sir Tīmoti Kāretu at a Māori language symposium held in Te Tauihu-o-te-waka-a-Māui (the top of the south) on Wednesday and Thursday.

The symposium was opened by Kiley Nēpia, pouahurea (cultural advisor) of Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, to an audience of more than 450 people who had gathered to hear the stories and value of language revitalisation.

Kiley Nēpia, pouahurea (cultural advisor) of Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, welcomes the audience at Te Kaiaotanga o Te Reo.

While most of the symposium, Te Kaiaotanga o Te Reo, was heard in te reo Māori, the speeches could be heard through headphones translated into English.

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The symposium was in te reo Māori, and headphones were provided for those that needed a translator.

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Nēpia said the top of the south “was one of the regions that suffered huge Māori language losses. In recent times all tribes have embarked on their own language revitalisation journeys.

“This symposium aims to inspire and energise language champions, by exposing some of the greatest,” Nēpia said in te reo.

Kiley Nepia, of Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, speaks to the audience at Te Kaiaotanga o te Reo, the first Māori Language Symposium to be held in the top of the South.

Māori Television children's show presenters of Te Nūtube, Te Hākura Ihimaera-Manley, and, Atareta Milne-Maxwell followed Nēpia in speaking at the event on Thursday.

Te Nūtube was founded after a video of the girls speaking te reo Māori went viral. To date, their YouTube channel has amassed nearly four million views.

Atareta's father, Chey Milne, told the audience raising the girls with te reo as their first language was “carefully prepared”.

“Prestige and mana, it’s a sign of that. It’s that which has given the girls these experiences,” Milne said.

“Those of you who may be a little bit shy, at least start learning how to count … the result can take you beyond new horizons.

“Speak Māori at home between each other, I consider there's a pathway to a community where te reo Māori is a thriving language.”

More than 450 people attended the symposium, held over two days at Blenheim’s ASB Theatre.

On day two, the crowd heard from Sir Tīmoti Kāretu. Kāretu was New Zealand’s first Māori Language Commissioners between 1987 and 1999, and then became executive director of Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust from 1993 to 2003.

In 2003, he helped create Te Panekiretanga o te Reo Māori, the Institute of Excellence in Māori Language, and served as its executive director.

“You look, and you wonder, and you are amazed by the fluency that was spoken yesterday,” Kāretu said.

“All those people are extremely fluent, and you wish you could be like them. You’ve got lots of role models to influence you.

“I want this language to survive. It can be done.”

Kāretu said if people were going to pass on the “legacy” of te reo, it needed to be done with quality.

“This language survives because we want it to do so. Without hunger and without commitment you’ll get nowhere,” he said.

“We’ve created this Māori language community, which I feel proud of.

“To the young people here, if you want to be one of these ones [speakers] sitting in the front of you, you can do it, it’s not in the realms of impossible, but it will demand your time.”

Founders of Te Wharekura o Ngāti Rongomai, Tūkiterangi and Rēnata Curtis, spoke to the audience about founding their school.

The couple set up the school in Rotorua in the early 2000s, with its first year of operation in 2008, when it had 20 children from eight families enrolled. The school now had more than 100 students enrolled.

“Year zero to nine, there was only one teacher who did everything and that was me. It was founded out of desperation,” Tūkiterangi said.

“I was passionate about getting somewhere for te reo.

“Be proud to be a Māori, and don’t think that your te reo Māori is of no use.”

Other speakers for the symposium, organised by Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō and Rangitāne o Wairau, included author and te reo Māori lecturer Hēmi Kelly, Human rights lawyer and advocate Annette Sykes and Māori language champions Stacey and Scotty Morrison.

The symposium was funded by Te Mātāwai, an independent organisation set up under the Māori Language Act to promote the use of te reo Māori in homes and the community.