Matariki: Stolen from me but returned to my children
“Back then, it wasn’t called Matariki. It was just winter. No one gave a shit about the stars in the sky.” — Haeatarangi Barker on welcoming Matariki as an adult.
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Tag: reo shame
Breaking through the biggest barrier to learning te reo
“When we’re feeling vulnerable, with negative self-chatter going round and round in our heads, the fear of making a mistake stills our tongues.” — Atakohu Middleton talks to Awanui Te Huia about how negative self-talk can undermine efforts to learn te reo.
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Restoring Aunty’s real name
“She began life as Narua, and she was Narua when she passed. In between, a wrong was corrected. The mana of her name was restored.” — Maureen Sinton.
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Be more curious than afraid
“This year has been about navigating the surprising layers of grief for a language I never had until now, and envying anybody who grew up with it.” — Michelle Campbell.
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Violence beat te reo Māori out of my whakapapa. Aroha brought it back.
“Generational trauma rises in me every time I think of Nana as a little girl being violently punished for speaking the only language she knew. Generational aroha pushes me forward to the mic.” — Marama Davidson on her reo journey.
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Back to the bad old days
“I had started to notice our reo all around me. We could hear it on the news, and we could see it on our government buildings and street signs. You would hear people saying ‘Kia ora’ and ‘Mōrena’ when you got into work. It began to feel okay to be Māori. Then came the new coalition government.” — Hira Nathan.
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Nadine Hura: Oriented to the light
“My book deals with grief and loss, because wherever there is colonialism, there is grief and loss. But there’s also strength, endurance, intelligence, wit, and just really hardworking, hard-case people doing their best in terrible and unjust circumstances.” — Nadine Hura, author of ‘Slowing the Sun’.
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Hands fluent in silence
“The steamroller of Pākehā assimilation, combined with patriarchal notions of masculinity, flattened all the words out of Moses, in any language. This left only his hands to demonstrate what could not be uttered out loud.” — Nadine Hura, from her book ‘Slowing the Sun’.
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Beating the taniwha of shame
“I speak the reo like a newborn. I make shapes with my mouth and hope the correct sounds will come out. I’m now eight weeks into this journey, and it’s been a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs.” — Michelle Campbell.
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Learning te reo as an adult: Tips for success
“There is a common factor that I see about those who are very quick adult learners. They quickly see that there is no point trying to maintain their ego . . . they are able to laugh at themselves, even if they make lots of mistakes.” — Matiu Ratima.
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