What te reo has given me

Friday, 9 September 2022

The 1972 Maori Language Petition is credited as a pivotal point in revitalising te reo. Fifty years on, those who’ve discovered their roots later in life tell Te Aorewa Rolleston and Virginia Fallon it’s shaped their worlds in new and moving ways.

Singer, artist and writer, Ariana Tikao, grew up in Ōtautahi during the 1970s – a time when some Māori were still described as “half-caste”.

Tikao simply came to accept that as normal.

Raised by her Māori father and Pākehā mother, Tikao says at that time she was disconnected from her reo and relationship with te ao Māori, but that their whānau always knew who they were as Māori.

“There wasn’t very much reo spoken while I was growing up and dad couldn’t speak the language, but we still had a sense of pride.”

**READ MORE:

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**

Tikao remembers learning basic te reo phrases while at school but it wasn’t until she reached university that she would be truly exposed to mātauranga (knowledge) about te reo Māori and te ao Māori.

This continued after university when she delved deeper through full immersion wānanga gatherings that she attended to better connect with her whakapapa and identity.

“I was really inspired by what I was learning… but I still didn’t feel that confident to speak in te reo Māori until I started going to some immersion hui or wānanga.”

Tikao’s story is a familiar one – Stuff has spoken to creatives who've gained new appreciation of their whakapapa and used it to channel their creative energies.

Their stories are part of what AUT associate professor Dr Ella Henry says is a turning tide: a significant shift as te reo Māori has moved further into the national conscience. She believes progress to revitalise the language is well and truly happening.

“My children and my grandson have had access to kōhanga and to what I call the revitalisation not just of language but of the culture…that’s what I see as the fundamental change that has occurred in my lifetime, and I am nearly 70.”

As Henry puts it, her generation may have lost the language at one point but they are also the cohort who are working to revive it for their mokopuna.

“There is a progression that has occurred over the last 50 years which shows that the revitalisation of language and culture has been really important for Māori people but also for New Zealand and our international identity.”

Throughout her adult life, Ariana Tikao had a constant yearning to be immersed in te reo and to be a “strong Kāi Tahu woman”, but at times this has been difficult.

It was through her love for music, tāonga pūoro and writing that she discovered a pathway to channel her emotions, Māoritanga and language into. Music became the craft that she poured her whakapapa into. She's also written a book, out in November.

While “not fluent yet” in te reo she’s reached a new and significant milestone: a moko kauae (traditional Māori tattoo).

Her growing knowledge of her Māoritanga and now, her moko, she says, has enabled her to stand stronger in her identity.

“It has become who I am…I feel connected to my tūpuna and I feel really strong.”

For artist, Theia (Em Walker; Ngāti Tīpā and Ngāti Amaru), who grew up with te reo Māori around her and spoke it often, she found herself gravitating towards English as her music career grew.

“When I first started writing music my first compositions were in te reo Māori… but through a result of pursuing this career in the pop world as well it’s been English that’s been at the forefront in terms of the music that I’ve released.”

From Waikato-Tainui, a connection to her te ao Māori whakapapa has always been central to who she is. Growing up in Christchurch, despite being away from their haukainga (homeland), she says it was a credit to her kuia, tupuna (ancestors) and her whānau who raised her.

During the 2020 lockdown Theia returned to writing reo Māori waiata as a way to reflect on the death of her kuia.

“Being exposed (gratefully) to hours and hours of tapes of my great-grandmother, I was able to learn my mita or dialect.'

She saw the benefit it brought towards sharing te reo with younger generations, and her people, and hasn’t stopped since.

Her latest album, Te Kaahu, is a dedication project to her kuia, written in te reo Māori and released earlier this year.

“My kuia was just one of the greatest people that I’ve ever known… and all I wanted to do was convey some of what she has taught me…that matauranga, the beauty and vulnerability of our reo and songwriting.”

Rutene Spooner (Ngāti Porou, Ngaruahine) says he’s one of the lucky ones – a product of the kōhanga reo movement that focused on total immersion in Māori language and values for preschool children.

Beginning in 1982, the initiative brought together te reo Māori-speaking elders with mokopuna and their parents in response to growing concern about the decline in use of te reo.

It’s a bittersweet privilege for Spooner, who was born and bred in Gisborne, that it was the effort of so many who had either lost or were banned from using reo that allowed him to learn it.

“I never really saw that value but it wasn't until later I realised even people in my generation don't have that.”

Like so many other reo speakers who came through the kōhanga model, his reo faltered in later life and by his mid-20s he felt he was losing his grasp of the language.

By then an experienced actor and singer, he returned to his roots in the world of Māori performing arts, rekindling his use of reo before striking out once more into a more Pākehā-centric realm of theatre. Things were fine for a while but then life began to feel a bit disjointed.

“I never heard my language, never felt the customs and had very much assimilated. It wasn't till a couple of years back I decided to bring these worlds together.”

That determination was partly influenced by the birth of his child, a “beautifully biracial daughter”.

“She drove home the need to weave these two worlds for the betterment of her. It's my responsibility to make sure the world she inherits is better than mine.”

Spooner is trying to do that by merging reo into his performances, not just translating the words but implementing tikanga Māori in the way he practises theatre.

His latest show, Thoroughly Modern Māui, is a case in point where traditional cabaret melds beautifully with reo.

“Cabaret is very similar to Māori storytelling – a really good yarn can’t go anywhere without moving into a song.”

As for the state of te reo in Aotearoa, Spooner says what began with an effort to hold on to the language, then reinvigorate and normalise it, is now ready to get regional.

“Like any language, to revitalise it you have to standardise it. Within Māoridom there's a real effort to go back to the roots of language within your tribes.”

To that end, all the dialect and colloquialisms used in his shows are specifically from the East Coast.

“When Māori come to see the show they know exactly where I’m from based on the words I use. I’m Ngāti Porou! That’s the future of reo Ngāti Porou.”