Te reo Maori matters year-round

Tomorrow marks the end of another Te Wiki o te Reo Maori, Maori Language Week. While some events may have moved online because of covid restrictions, I hope you got involved in one way or another, no matter your level of fluency.

Perhaps you took part in the Maori Language Moment on Monday or learned a new word during the week.

The important thing now is to keep up that momentum. We’ve all heard that old phrase tossed about, “Use it or lose it” – this can be applied to nothing more aptly than to language.

My first language is Telugu, and I only started learning English when I went to preschool. Having grown up in a predominantly English-speaking country, I am now more proficient in my second language than my first.

To maintain my fluency in Telugu, I have to make a concentrated effort.

The same applies to our knowledge of te reo Maori. If we don’t use it, we’ll lose it.

And that cannot happen.

Maori and tauiwi [non-maori] alike have a responsibility to protect Aotearoa’s indigenous language. While not everybody has to be fluent, we need to incorporate te reo Maori into our everyday lives to ensure those who are proficient have the chance to use it.

Te Wiki o te Reo Maori is a chance to celebrate the Maori language and remind Kiwis of its importance. But a week is not enough to create meaningful change.

I don’t want to see organisations adopt te reo for one week and discard it the next. I find this performative, playing dress-up without the commitment to meaningful change.

It reminds me of something I became interested in as a fashion student [many years ago] - Vogue Italia’s July 2008 magazine.

This edition was known as the ‘Black Issue’, its cover graced only black models. The publication was created in response to criticism that magazines rarely featured black people as cover models. Here’s an excerpt of an essay I wrote as a student:

“Although perhaps an earnest act by Vogue to try to assimilate black models into the fashion magazine industry, the end result does not achieve this … A more effective method would have been to include more black models into the magazine on a regular basis, as unlike the ‘Black Issue’ it would have represented black models as being as ‘normal’ as white models.”

Just like Vogue would have benefitted from weaving black models throughout the pages of its magazine as a matter of course, so will we benefit from weaving te reo Maori throughout our everyday lives.

While knowing how to order a coffee in Maori is better than not knowing, I’m afraid the person I try to speak to will not understand what I am asking for. This is why we need more than a week.

We need a concerted and sustained effort, from everyone, to improve our collective knowledge of te reo.

Mauri mahi, mauri ora; mauri noho, mauri mate — industry begets prosperity, idleness begets poverty.

Let’s keep up the momentum and do the mahi.

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