Kua whakakotahi mai tātou ki te whakanui i Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. We have come together to celebrate Māori Language Week!
Tēnā tātau katoa, nau mai ra. Greetings to all, welcome.
My Te Reo journey got off to a slow start. When I was at high school in Milton it was not something we were taught or encouraged to learn. Perhaps the odd word here and there, but that was all. My school had a Māori name, Tokomairiro High School, but more often than not it was mispronounced.
I remember one of my first thoughts when I was offered the role to present Nightline on TV3 was whether we would have Te Reo training. I imagined an intense workshop that would drill us on how to pronounce everything from Taupo to Kingi Tūheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero VII. Like my colleague Mike talked about in his emotional and raw documentary Kia Ora, Good Evening I too worried that I might get the simple greeting wrong live on air.
But there was no such training. Back then, TV3 and 3News (as Newshub was previously known) very much had a culture of throwing you in the deep end. Sink or swim, it all played out live in real-time in front of hundreds of thousands of viewers.
So I watched and listened intently to the other presenters on air, absorbing how Mike McRoberts, Carol Hirschfeld, and John Campbell said kia ora (kee-a oar-ra rolling the r), Manurewa (Ma-noo-reh-wa not Ma-knew-ray-wa), Maungatepopo (from the canyoning disaster that claimed seven lives). I learnt how to break up the words so they were easier to read in the autocue; Maunga-te-po-po. And to give the same weight to each vowel sound unless there was a macron above it.
I knew that I had to commit to using the right pronunciation all the time - not just on air - so when I was live, it would flow easily.
A good grasp of te reo Māori is now part of the Kiwi way of life. For broadcasters, those in leadership positions and anyone speaking publicly, it is no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have.
I'm not talking about being fluent in the language, although wouldn't that be wonderful, but having the ability to say hello, welcome, thank you and how are you? Is enough to get you on your way, to begin your te reo Māori journey.
I've had moments when I've called into question my right to use Te Reo, when it has felt a bit token to throw in a "tena koe" and "ngā mihi" without the ability to go much further simply because I lack the knowledge. But the thing I love about Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, Māori Language Week is that it revitalises my efforts and adds more words and phrases to my kete. It puts the focus back on my Reo learning and gives me the space and the help to push further and learn more.
Newshub is now offering six-week Te Reo courses for beginners. Mike's desk is right next to mine and my colleagues Oriini Kaipara and Te Rina Kowhai are usually handy too if I need help with any pronunciation.
They've taught me that so long as your heart is in the right place, it's ok if you don't get it right 100 percent of the time. In my job there's no room for error, but that's a comforting thought!
Words like mahi, motu, tamariki, rangatahi, mokopuna, tēnā koe, ngā mihi, ka pai are all part of the national lexicon now. Māori place names are increasingly being used by themselves. Macrons - which make it so much easier to pronounce words correctly - are now being included. It feels like we're taking big steps forward.
So give it a go. Kia Kaha te reo Māori! Let's make the Māori language strong!
