How te reo Māori is becoming a normalised aspect of popular culture, and why it matters
Thursday, 8 September 2022
For many growing up in Aotearoa in the 80s or 90s, the inclusion of te reo Māori in popular culture was largely limited to the All Blacks performing the haka on the international stage, despite it becoming an official language of New Zealand in 1987.
Read this story in te reo Māori and English here. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei.
More than two decades ago, New Zealand’s longest-running medical drama brought a snippet of te reo with receptionist Marj Rasch answering the prime-time hospital phone with “Kia ora, Shortland Street”.
But in recent years, the inclusion of te reo in popular culture has made a positive shift, weaving the language into mainstream culture through books, film, television, radio and music.
**READ MORE:
* Outrage at Lorde and the Mongrel Mob shows we're losing our ability to see two sides of an issue
* Why waiata reo Māori have never been more popular
**
No longer limited to “kia ora”, Shortland Street incorporates te reo in the scripts of Pākeha and Māori characters.Australian soap Home and Away recently highlighted Aotearoa culture with Summer Bay’s first Māori family, the whānau Parata.
Locally produced reality shows such as The Great Kiwi Bake Off have hosts Pax Assadi and Hayley Sproull weaving te reo words and phrases into their introductions and greetings.
Even blockbuster Disney films have had a te reo makeover. In June this year, 1994 film The Lion King was adapted into te reo and praised as “embodying Māori indigeneity, it feels proximate, and you don’t need to speak reo Māori to appreciate it”. This month, Frozen Reo Māori will be released during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.
Māori language adviser, translator and author Hēmi Kelly says the incorporation of the language in popular culture is an important shift, primarily because te reo is an official language of Aotearoa.
“We have a committent and a responsibility as a country to ensure that [te reo] lives in every single part of our society. Language isn't confined to one space or one group of people.”
Kelly has noticed more organisations and non-Māori are starting to learn the language and embrace it.
“It’s important because what it contributes to is the normalisation of the language,” he says.
“There will be a time in the future when te reo Māori sits beside English in every single space. The stuff we’re starting to see today, the chocolate bar, Lorde, the bilingual signage, the TV, the radio, we’re halfway there. We’re on our way to being a bilingual country.”
Te reo in music is even being taken to a global stage, thanks to Kiwi star Lorde, who joined Marlon Williams in London earlier this year when the pair performed a duet of Lorde’s song Stoned at the Nail Salon entirely in te reo. In 2021, Lorde also released an EP in te reo – a translation of Solar Power songs, Te Ao Mārama.
Kelly, who collaborated with the translation for Lorde’s EP, says the increase of te reo use is a positive step towards normalising the language for everyone and truly becoming a bilingual country.
“In New Zealand, it's socially acceptable to include Māori words or phrases into conversation,” he says.
Words such as kai, whānau, mahi and kia kaha are woven into everyday conversation and most New Zealanders know their meanings. The inclusion of phrases and words makes the language accessible to everyone, whether they feel comfortable speaking the language or not.
The journey to the normalisation of te reo in everyday New Zealand began with the Māori language petition, which was delivered to government with 30,000 signatures in 1972. The petition asked for active recognition of te reo Māori, which ultimately led to the Māori Language Act in 1987. The act gave the Māori language official language status in Aotearoa.
“To go from pleading to the government to now – there’s been a lot of push, a lot of fight – and we’re starting to see the benefits of what that generation did,” says Kelly.
Kelly himself has done great things to normalise the language in mainstream culture, with his books such as A Māori Phrase a Day, but Kelly says his biggest reach is through social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok – platforms that further make the language accessible to anybody.
And TikTok and te reo are proving popular on a viral scale. Musicians Rob Ruha and Ka Hao’s waiata, 35, was a viral sensation in 2021, with more than 12 million shares.
Kelly was also pleasantly surprised to hear te reo seamlessly weaved into greetings and conversation on mainstream radio recently.
“And they were playing Māori music. In the past, Māori music wasn’t included in mainstream radio.
“I’m still thrilled when I see te reo in a new space and hear it. Those little moments always give me a sense of pride and I’m excited by it,” says Kelly.
While a year ago, te reo translations on a train or at the airport brought a sense of excitement, Kelly says these have become a part of everyday life. He expects the same to continue happening in all aspects of popular culture in future years.
“Those moments are going to blow over to something that’s normal and expected.”