Kia kaha Te Reo!

If you were to look at this website, you would see there are currently many different ways in which we as a nation recognize and celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. It is so heartening to see how much the country has changed over the decades to now have this so widely supported. It is difficult to not know about it with so much in the media and on the news talking about how Aotearoa New Zealand has this opportunity to build the indigenous language of our land so its survival is guaranteed. 

I am of the age when I vividly remember the time when a Māori woman was reprimanded and lost her job because she answered the telephone with the greeting kia ora. I don't think our students realize the struggle that has been endured over the past 40 years to have us at this point now. 

I know that we are not all fluent speakers of Te Reo Māori, in fact, increasingly New Zealand is home to people who do not have English as their first language, but for those of us who have travelled abroad, I find it an interesting point that if someone were to sing the first line of Tutira mai nga iwi......that we would all be able to reply with tatou tatou e. And likewise, in an expression of national pride we would be able to throw out a few lines, and maybe even the actions to the All Black haka, but why is that? I believe that like it or not, we all, to varying degrees, hold dear to our hearts the fact that the Māori language belongs to us, and only us. It is unique to this nation and to our kiwi psyche. 

Some people say that this week is not Māori language week, because Māori language week is every week, so I encourage you to take up the challenge, and even if it is only a kia ora or a tēnā koutou, that we all integrate it into our daily conversation. We as a nation will be better for it. 

In our school, we have a range of different activities for the students arranged each year to celebrate the language and culture. Our House Haka and Waiata Competition happened this week, details can be seen in this newsletter. The West Coast Kapa Haka Festival is next week, more to come on this in our next newsletter. There are daily quizzes for the students and food from the cooking room to bring us together. In the past, we have had cultural activities or an assembly for students to share their experiences and talents. This year we have combined our Kapa Haka family performance with other cultures including Tongan, Filipino, and Fijian, details also in this newsletter. 

We are a global village on a small-town scale, but that does not mean we are any less proud of where we come from or who we are. The one thing I hope you all take away from this 2020 Māori Language Week is this idea, that we are all one.

Mauri ora!