In this putanga | issue of Reowatch - Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori:

On one particular day this August, I had a friend say they’d heard a poem of mine while listening to RNZ. Working in the world of language takes me everywhere. Sometimes I forget wonderful, creative friends push me out of my comfort zone to do things like write poetry. I often forget these words exist - a testament to how fast the language world moves and that for the most part, I’m in a service-based, English-based industry. I don’t live in a world where I create for it, or even have time to notice it properly, in te reo Māori.

That’s the world I want to create, but not the one I have. That short kōrero with my friend was a reminder to try and move ahead of time more - to try and live in the world I want to exist in, even while I’m building it.

Accordingly, this putanga of Reowatch also moves ahead of time - it will go live on its 1 September publishing date, well before Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. It will be a memory by 1 October, but it’s time for us to celebrate now!

This Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, I’m choosing to celebrate the language as less of a treasured taonga for veneration, and more of an everyday taonga, one that should be worn and tattered by the time I’m done. Like a favourite mug, it’s scratched and chipped. It’s still the mug of choice though, because it carries story, memory, or just feels right in my hands. That’s what I want for my language.

We all know we’re ‘supposed to use more Māori,’ but I would preface that in 2025 by saying ‘first, we have to choose more, so the attitudes that might dampen that use arrive too late to affect us.’

Those attitudes have caught us this month, I think. While I don’t want to lower your spirits for Mahuru Māori or Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, I do need to cover off what happened in August: it was not a pretty month for the language. Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori is a chance to reset following what certainly feels like a tirade of negative language events.

In this second putanga of Reowatch we’ll read about the New Zealand (Name of State) Bill and see what it tries to achieve for Aotearoa. We’ll learn what Māori words the Ministry of Education doesn’t seem to want your tamariki to learn, and give thanks to Hobson’s Pledge for teaching us some excellent things about multilingual communication.

Finally, this month’s multilingual writing tip is a tech one. For anyone familiar with html code, or who has access to someone who knows a little code, this one’s for you! I’ll show you how to embed audio into your documents so you can have clickable pronunciation all throughout your documents. If you’re in an agency or office that uses SharePoint or a learning management system (Like Tōtara), this can be done in a way that positively contributes to your language goals and plans. Government agencies: you’re required to have a plan. If you don’t know what’s in your Mahere Reo, go and find it!

Every time you pick up your favourite mug for a cuppa, remind yourself to choose te reo Māori as a habit too. We need to move past handshake language, towards saying regular, impactful, meaningful things in Māori. That’s the best way to curtail negativity and ignorance.

Kōrerotia, waiatatia.

Vincent Ieni Olsen-Reeder

Kaietita, Reowatch