Aotearoa celebrates te reo Māori together in a single moment
Monday, 13 September 2021
Thousands of voices across the motu and around the world are singing waiata and speaking te reo Māori as the Māori Language Moment begins.
The celebration of the indigenous language of Aotearoa started at 12pm on Tuesday, with at least 188,000 people stopping to support Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori – the Māori Language Commission’s Māori Language Moment for 2021.
In her Kaikohe salon, Personal Space, Mara Pickery listens to waiata on the radio as she clips the hair of kuia who love the personal attention they get at her salon.
Kupu Māori (Māori words) are displayed on the mirrors as her clients and staff kōrero about their day.
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An annual commitment for her, the Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua wahine said she learns more than she teaches when Te Wiki o te Reo Māori comes around.
“A lot of my clients love to speak the reo. It’s really cool because all the kuia are really comfortable. I try to use it as much as I can.
“I’m not fluent, but you’ll get all the old kuia and they just yarn away, so they will talk to you and you just pick it up.”
The goal for 2021 was to double to number of people joining the moment from 1 million last year to 2 million people.
Ngahiwi Apanui, chief executive of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, said 2020 was the largest celebration of te reo Māori ever.
“In the middle of a global pandemic, New Zealanders showed us their support for te reo is as strong as ever.
“Colmar Brunton polling at the end of last year saw more than eight in 10 people tell us they see te reo as something to be proud of and part of their identity as a New Zealander.
“It’s not just kia kaha te reo Māori: it’s also kia kaha Aotearoa.”
Tahir Nawaz is watching videos his colleagues have sent him where they sing waiata or practise speaking te reo Māori to acknowledge the Māori Language Moment as part of the Cultural Confidence Group under Corrections.
Nawaz, who migrated to Aotearoa 22 years ago from Singapore, has put learning te reo and encouraging others at the forefront of everything he does to acknowledge the tangata whenua of the land.
“We are proud to be here and we want to thank the land and respect the language.
“Anyone doing little tiny things to support this moment will see the effects in the future.”
In Tāmaki Makaurau, Mary Rolston-Gallagher is watching her kaimahi relay a mihimihi to tamariki from their Buckland early childhood centre via Zoom.
Still under alert level 4 the Young Explorers aren’t able to gather to celebrate Māori language week or the moment, but that hasn’t stopped them celebrating te reo.
As a kaiako, Rolston-Gallagher says it’s her responsibility to help the children feel comfortable with Māori language so they can carry it with them as they grow.
It’s her way of helping to heal past trauma of the reo beng taken away from her tīpuna.
“As many New Zealanders, we have lost out connection to Papatūānuku and this helps me to regain my whakawhanaungatanga and feel confident expressing myself,” Rolston-Gallagher said.
On her own te reo journey, she’s decided to call her father Pāpā, to increase her use of te reo in her home life.
“There’s so much past trauma and there’s so much more we need to do, but we’re taking steps.”