Going back, coming home
“One of my goals is to get into a position where I can work for Ngāti Pikiao, as someone who helps our people to come home . . . to help them discover this whole other way of life.” — Te Atamairangi Emery-Hughes.
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Author: Siena Yates
Back to the future, marae style
“I think about how I grew up with my grandparents, and I’m hoping we can get back to that idea of “a village raises a family”, and not just for the kids but for our kaumātua and others who might be struggling with loneliness and anxiety.” — Miriana Stephens.
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Feeling the K-wave wairua
“For me, the K-wave has been this beautiful, shining example of how our reo and traditions could be one day, in a very real and attainable sense.” — Siena Yates.
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Margaret Mutu: Call it what you want, co-governance isn’t going away
“All we’re asking for is a world in which Māori make our own decisions about our own lives, the government makes its own decisions about its people’s lives, and we sit together and make decisions on matters that relate to us both.” — Professor Margaret Mutu.
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Why our marae will always open in a crisis
“None of the people of our marae wait to find out if there’ll be money coming down the track. When you ask them why they do what they do, they say: ‘That’s what we do as Māori. That’s manaakitanga.’” — Siena Yates.
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Embrace the whakamā, embrace the mamae
“The reo journey is hard and confronting, and a lot of the time you just have to push through. There’s no skirting around it, especially if you’re Māori and carrying the language trauma that many of us do.” — Siena Yates.
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Siena Yates: I finally feel the connection
“For the first time in my life, I feel whole. I feel spiritually well. I feel Māori. And not because I can have a short conversation in the reo, but because I finally feel the connection.” — Siena Yates.
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Learning from legends
“The kura reo is specifically designed to challenge you, to push your limits and demolish any concept of a comfort zone. But it’s done in a way that is manageable for you, and with aroha.” — Siena Yates.
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Te wero nui o te Wiki o te Reo Māori
“Every time I went to any Pākehā space, my reo disappeared.” — Siena Yates, on challenging herself to speak only Māori during Māori Language Week.
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If you’re listening, you’re learning
“Sometimes, it doesn’t seem to make sense. Sometimes, it’s unbearably hard and you want to quit.” — Siena Yates.
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When the reo settles into your heart
“Once you’ve started to kōrero Māori with your kurī, there’s no going back.” — Siena Yates.
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A space to breathe
“The full-time, full-immersion learning environment gives us a space where we don’t have to try so hard to be in te ao Māori.” — Siena Yates.
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Finding my real voice
“I’d finally joined an environment where I didn’t have to use my Pākehā voice for the first time in my life.” — Siena Yates.
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No longer scared to speak my language
“It’s only in recent years that I’ve even plucked up the courage to claim my identity, to proudly say: Yes, I am Māori.” — Siena Yates.
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Te whakaatatanga i te ao reo
E kōrero atu nei ia ki a Kristin Ross o Punarau Media, e pā ana ki ngā mahi pakeke ki te whakatupu tamariki i roto i tētahi kāinga reo Māori, koia i whakaihu waka ai tōna pakihi.
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Te ika me te marara rīwai he mea kīnaki ki te reo
Anton Matthews e pā ana ki te mahi whakatupu tamariki kōrero Māori me te whakahaere pakihi reorua — me te wawata kotahi kei roto.
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Keeping Māori storytelling alive
“Ours is an oral tradition and that’s important because it’s not only how we share stories but how we transfer and transmit knowledge.” — Lee Timutimu.
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A whānau affair
“We have almost four generations of te reo Māori speakers in our family. My goal in life before I leave this earth is that those teachings will funnel down to the next three generations after my children.” — Eli Smith.
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Reflecting the reo world
“Their decision to be a reo Māori-speaking household instantly cut off friends and whānau who either didn’t agree with their decision or found it too challenging to communicate solely in te reo.”
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Fish and chips and a serving of te reo
“It really didn’t sit well with me that, outside our home, my kids would feel like they’d have to leave that part of themselves at the door and be somebody else. To put on a mask.” — Anton Matthews.
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A yearning for the reo
“I think had I stayed in Australia, I wouldn’t have been happy and my heart would’ve yearned to be here.” — Jeremy MacLeod.
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Hinewehi Mohi: Beyond Twickenham
“I was often defined by that moment which was probably, what, a minute? I get it. I understand the importance of it, but it’s nice to be able to focus on new and important developments.” — Hinewehi Mohi.
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