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Taumata 3: He Pihinga

Challenge Level 3: Grow your reo

Month Challenge:
Speak/write/sing/play in/learn/listen to te reo Māori for one to two hours per day. 

Huatau | Language learning ideas

What you do to start learning and speaking is up to you but you won’t be alone. There are people from all sorts of backgrounds and levels of ability needed to revitalise te reo Māori, so get started using our ideas below. See how you can incorporate te reo Māori into your everyday life and be one in a million speakers by 2040. It could be as easy as playing a Māori language song, starting your Zoom call with “mōrena”, or starting lunch with a karakia!

Tēnā tirohia ēnei whakaaro whakatairanga – kōwhiria, mahia!

So check out these ideas – choose and use!

  • Listen to te reo Māori only for the day
  • Play the ‘Te Wiki o te Reo Māori’ playlist in your business or workplace for everyone to hear!
  • Hāni Dread sings ‘Kokiri’ in honour of the reo champions who marched to parliament to deliver the Māori Language Petition in 1972. 
  • Re-watch the Māori Language Commsission’s Rarangatahi seminars where rangatahi Māori talk about their journey with te reo Māori
  • Listen to podcasts like Taringa or Everday Māori to sharpen your reo
  • Back2Kura is a new podcast where two millennials are documenting their journey through a full immersion course
  • Download the whare kōrero app to listen to Māori content from around the motu
  • Tune in to Māori Television
  • Listen to Hinewehi Mohi sing our national anthem in te reo Māori at the 1999 Rugby World Cup in England.
  • If you have a young pēpi, play this beautiful new lullaby ‘I te Tōnga o te Rā’ from Te Hiringa Hauora
  • Listen to rangatahi from Ngāti Porou sing with Rob Ruha in their new single ‘35
  • Listen to the Waiata Anthems playlist, available on all platforms! Featuring hits ‘Kia Mau ki Tō Ūkaipō / Don’t Forget Your Roots’, ‘Kōrukutia / Bathe in the River’, ‘Karawhiua / 100’ and more!
  • Hear Professor Rawinia Higgins talk about the thinking behind the Māori Language Act 2016
  • Make ‘kia ora’ your first choice of greeting to everyone you speak to. If you’re on TikTok, watch Sonny explain the beauty of kia ora!
  • Open your moment with a kaikōhau (expression of hope)
  • Learn and use #MyMihi to introduce yourself to anyone new
  • Prepare your whānau, friends or workplace to speak te reo Māori for the hour
  • Open your news bulletin with te reo Māori
  • Host a ‘Kōrero Kai’ for lunch where you only speak in te reo Māori
  • Start lunch off with a karakia for kai
  • Order your coffee in te reo Māori
  • Set a ‘reo Māori only’ zone within your workplace or home
  • Set a time where your whānau or workplace only speak te reo (i.e. 1-2pm)
  • Call a mate or 2 and have a kōrero in te reo Māori

Thanks to the Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori team for collating and sharing these ideas. For more visit www.reomaori.co.nz/ideas

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