Te reo Māori is still considered a vulnerable language, with the dialects of some iwi being worse off.
So tribal leaders are calling for more revitalisation efforts towards dialectal differences.
Atu i Moana ki Te Kīngi Raiona, ko Disney tētahi o ngā kaupapa hōu e whakanui nei i te reo taketake o Aotearoa.
Ko tana kiriata o te wā tētahi o ngā kiriata matua tuatahi kia ruku ki ngā mita e rima o Te Reo Māori. Ā, ko Frozen ka whai.
Ko te pounamu nei o Ngāi Tahu ko Hana O'Regan tērā i kōpoua hei kaiwhakamāori i te kiriata ki tana mita ake.
"Ko tērā he tauira o te momo rauemi ka taea e tātou te waihaka mehemea kāore tātou e noho i tō tātou mita. Ka noho Māori nei," e kiia nei a O'Regan.
Nā O'Regan te reo o Ngāi Tahu i whakarauora. Kātahi anō a Ngāi Tahu, a Kāi Tahu rānei ka whakanui i te tuatahi o ngā whakatipuranga e mau nei ki te mita o te iwi.
Heoi anō, o ngā iwi katoa, e ai ki ngā tatauranga mō te ora o te reo, ko Ngāi Tahu kei raro, iti iho i te kotahi ōrau o tana taupori he kōrero Māori.
"Ka rōpū e tuku ana i te pūtea ki te whakaoratanga i te mita-a-rohe me te reo-a-rohe, nā te mea ko tērā hoki he whanako o te reo e whakakorehia i patua i takahia," hei tā O'Regan.
E kōrero ana a O'Regan mō te Ture Kura Taketake, tērā i whai kia whakapākehatia te tamaiti Māori.
Ko te reo Ingarihi anake i whakaaengia ki te kura, ā, ko ngā tamariki Māori kōrero Māori anake i wepua.
Hei tā O'Regan, "Nā te kāwanataka tō tātou reo i takahi, nā te kāwanataka tō tātou reo i whakamate."
O te taupori o Aotearoa, kotahi ōrau noa iho he Ngāi Tahu ā waru ōrau he Māori.
E whā tekau mā toru ōrau kei waho o te rohe e noho ana, tekau mā rua ōrau ka noho ki tāwahi kē.
Ko te heke i te wā kāinga he tūāhua e pā kau nei ki nga iwi huri i te motu.
"Mōku ake ko toku mita ko toku reo te tuāpapa o ngā whakaaro, engari he mea honohono a ki ōku whakapapa, ki ngā maunga, ki ngā moana o te takiwā o roto Te Tai Tokerau whānui," e kiia nei a Heeni Brown nō Te Aupōuri.
Kei Rotorua a Heeni Brown, kairīpoata o mua o Whakaata Māori, e noho ana. Ko ia tētahi i tohua ki te ohu whakatairanga i te reo ki te ao pāpāho Māori.
Ā, kīhai ia i mōhio ka whakatauria e ia he momo reo pāpāho, reo ā-motu rānei i āna mahi, heoi, kaha tonu te rangona o tana mita, tētahi o ngā momo e ono o Te Tai Tokerau.
Hei tā Brown: "He tūtohu ake ana tērā na nō te Tai Tokerau, tērā na nō Ngāpuhi, tērā na nō Te Aupōuri, engari pēnā i roto i ahau i te Te Tai Tokerau, ana kua whakamahingia i ngā kupu pēnei te wēke, te whakarongo kaua ko te hakarongo me te hēke. Nā kua mea mai rātou kua mōhio pū rātou he Aupōuri ahau."
Tōna 80 ōrau kupu Māori e whakamahingia ana e ngā iwi, ko te 20 ōrau e toe ana e ahu mai ana i ngā iwi kāinga. Hei tauira, e rite ana te reo o te iwi noho tuawhenua ki tērā o te kākā me te tūī.
E ai ki ngā mātanga reo ko tā te mita he tohu i te tuakiri o te kaikōrero, engari kei te hapori kōrero Māori kē te oranga tonutanga o ngā mita - arā, ko ngā marae me ngā kura kaupapa Māori ēnā.
E ai ki a Tonga Karena nō Taranaki: "Mā roto tonu mai i tana ako mai i ngā reo, i ngā kupu o tēnei takiwā e tū tangata ai ia."
"E pupuru ai i a ia te mauri o ona tupuna tauheke heke iho heke iho, ana ka tū a ia i roto i tona Taranakitanga."
He mea waiwai kia reo Māori te kāinga. Mō tēnā, mō tēnā kaikōrero Māori i te kāinga, e 2 ira 8 te tinga o te taiohi Māori ki te kōrero i te reo. Engari e ora ai te reo Māori, pērā i ērā atu reo whakaraerae, me kōrero hoki ki ngā kāinga o iwi kē.
Ka mutu, he wāhi nui tō ērā atu iwi, ina hoki, mō ia kaikōrero Māori i te kāinga, e 4 ira 9 te tinga o te taiohi tauiwi ki te kōrero Māori.
Nā reira, e tika ana kia whai ngā ākonga reo i tētahi mita rānei, i te mita rānei o iwi kē?
"Me tika te whakahua, me tika hoki te whakaaro, e kare mehemea e tika era mea tena whakanuia, korerohia te mita o Kaitahu," hei tā O'Regan.
Ehara ko te pakanga mō te ora o te reo te pakanga anake, engari ia mō ngā mita e mau nei i ngā hītori me te mauri o ngā iwi kainga huri i Aotearoa.
From Moana to The Lion King, Disney is one of the latest initiatives valuing the indigenous language of Aotearoa, New Zealand.
The recent dub being the first-ever feature film to use five dialects of te reo Māori. And now Frozen is next.
Ngāi Tahu descendant Hana O'Regan was tasked with translating it all in her own dialect.
"It's an example of the types of resources we can recreate, if we don't have our own dialect in our daily lives. It becomes normalised," said O'Regan.
O'Regan has been behind the tribe's language revitalisation efforts. Ngāi Tahu, or known as Kai Tahu in their dialect, recently celebrated their first generation of native speakers.
Yet of all iwi, the tribe has the worst statistics for the health of the language, with less than 1 percent of the tribe regarded as competent reo speakers.
"There needs to be dedicated funding for revitalising dialects and language localisation, because that's where our language was removed by force," O'Regan said.
O'Regan is referring to the Native Schools Act, legislation intended to force Māori to assimilate into Pākehā society.
Only English was allowed to be spoken in schools and children who spoke Māori were often beaten.
"It was the government who trampled and decimated our language," O'Regan said.
Ngāi Tahu represents just over 1 percent of the population of Aotearoa, New Zealand and 8 percent of Māori. Forty-three percent live in other parts of Aotearoa and 12 percent in other countries.
The drift away from home is a reality shared by other tribes.
"For me my dialect, my language is my foundation. It's also a way to connect to my genealogy, to my mountains, to the waterways found only in the Northland region," said Heeni Brown, of Te Aupōuri.
Now living in Rotorua, former Māori Television journalist Heeni Brown was part of the Māori media sector tasked with promoting the language.
And while she unwittingly helped standardise the language into what might be called 'Broadcast' or 'Proper Māori', her strong accent from one of Northland's six known dialects pierced through.
"Dialects distinguish if a person is from the North, or from Ngāpuhi, or from Te Aupōuri. When I'm amongst them I'd use words like 'weeke' and 'whakarongo' instead of 'hakarongo' and 'heeke'. That's how they'd know I'm Te Aupōuri," Brown said.
About 80 percent of the words used in te reo Māori are used by many tribes, with the remaining 20 percent coming from the tribe and the environment they live in. For example tribes who live inland mimic the sound of the kākā bird or the tūī bird.
Māori language experts say a tribe's dialect is an identity marker, but it's the language community that has one of the biggest roles to play in dialect revitalisation - that's marae and Māori immersion schools.
"By learning the language and various words of this region a person becomes resolute. They are grasping on to the life principle of their ancestors passed down through the generations and so they can claim being of Taranaki descent," said Tonga Karena of Taranaki.
Having the language in the home is vital. For every Māori speaker in their household,
Māori youth are 2.8 times more likely to speak conversational Te Reo. But to survive, Te Reo, like all vulnerable languages, also needs to be spoken in homes from other cultures.
And these other cultures have a huge part to play because for every Māori speaker in their household, non-Māori youth are 4.9 times more likely to speak conversational Te Reo.
So is it appropriate for Te Reo learners to take on specific dialects or the dialects of other tribes?
"Pronunciation and intentions must be correct. If we get those right then we should acknowledge that, let them speak the Ngāi Tahu dialect," said O'Regan.
The fight isn't just to save Te Reo but also the unique dialects that celebrate the homelands and histories of the Māori tribes of Aotearoa.
