Let’s celebrate Maori Language Week at 12 noon on Thursday 14 September

Te Rangaihi Reo Māori: The Movement is inviting all of Aotearoa to stop what they are doing and celebrate te reo Māori at 12pm on Thursday 14 September. This marks the very moment the Māori Language Petition was presented to Parliament in 1972. 3 years later, it became what we now know as Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week).

One of our Stepping UP partners, TaiTech in Gisborne, has taken the bull by the horns and plans to deliver their Better Digital Futures class that day in te reo Māori. They are getting some help from some local Kura Kaupapa Māori students, especially when it comes to getting the right pronunciation. They will be walking their kaumatua students through a special lesson on navigating their smartphones in te reo Māori.

So what can your team do on 14 September to celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. Maybe you could display your te reo Māori Jump posters next week and encourage all your staff to test their te reo fluency in reading the poster. An interesting fact that you might not know is that families identifying as Māori are by far the largest group of Skinny Jump users – of the 13,500 new Jump users between July 2022 and June 2023, nearly 7,500 (55%) identified as Māori.

Our DIAA team is coming together on Zoom at 12 noon on 14 September to share what we know about te reo Māori terms for all things digital, as well as learn same standard greeting phrases. We are also planning to test ourselves on how well we can pronounce the Māori names for some of our partners!

Author: Laurence Zwimpfer

I am committed to supporting the development of New Zealand as a digitally included nation, where everyone has equitable opportunities to benefit from the digital world. View all posts by Laurence Zwimpfer