A local school epitomises this year’s Te Wiki o te Reo Māori theme that represents resilience, adaptability and endurance of the language.
The annual Māori Language Week held this year between 14 and 21 September is a celebration to uplift the language, and at Tāhunanui School, te reo Māori is like the umbilical cord to everyone in its community.
Principal Barbara Bowen has witnessed the local progression of the language in her three decades teaching in Nelson and says te reo Māori and its sustainability was a large part of its school term theme and its curriculum.
“We have been on different learning journeys in terms of how best to develop it in the curriculum and to sustain it, no matter who the staff are and what the expertise is,” she says.
“We decided on a Te Puna Reo programme this year, and we are aiming to move from level one of te reo learning to level two in the next couple of years… so it’s all our staff and students learning the same thing across the school… and we’re also bringing in our whānau so they can have access as well.
“We’re hoping that by having this structure it will build the capacity of our staff and students… we’re hearing a lot more sentence structures and using the words more interactively now than we ever were before… we’re really excited to build on what we’ve got already.”
Barbara says the school’s community grasping a greater understanding of te reo gave it a sense of belonging as New Zealanders and a hope for the future.
“We are the guardians of that language, and if we lose it, it’s not going to come back,” she says.
“Te reo gives you a greater understanding of New Zealand culture, society, why you would build in one area and not another, and the importance of looking after the rivers, the sea and the natural wildlife.
“Because it’s not just the language, it’s the tikanga and the protocols and the history that sits behind that as well.”
Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) has also noticed a jump in its te reo Māori programme enrolments.
Executive director Olivia Hall says a plethora of people enrolling and their reasons for it were a good sign for the language’s longevity.
“Some people who are exceedingly highly qualified in a variety of qualifications, some who have very high-powered jobs, to some who are first-time studying,” she says.
“Some of the reasons we get are ‘my grandchildren or children are learning te reo in the classroom and I want to be able to keep up with them’… for our Māori learners its around sort of that reclamation of their own language and culture, which enables them to learn more about their own self and history.
“For some it’s around their job to make sure that they’re able to be proficient enough within their roles and some are either interested or committed to New Zealand being more bilingual.”
Olivia says adults being less demure about using te reo will also sustain it.
“As adults we feel whakamā or ashamed if we make a mistake… but the more it’s used, the more it’s normalised as part of our way of communicating, then it helps with the sustainability of te reo for the long term,” she says.
