Lou

“Tēnā koutou, ngā mihi nui mō te wiki o te reo Māori! Ahakoa iti, akona, kōrerotia ia rā, ia rā.

Māori Language week is a week when the language I care deeply for is normalised. The week is all about breaking down barriers and giving others the opportunity to learn and the encouragement they need to make a step towards learning our language.

We speak Māori at home with our children so it is cool to hear it in everyday situations. Sadly my mum was discouraged to speak the language when she was young. My aunty learned later in life and was always encouraging about keeping the language alive. When our eldest was born my husband (who is of Scottish decent) and I (Samoan, Ngati Porou, Te Whānau-A-Apanui and Ngāi Tahu) made a decision to learn the language so she didn’t have to struggle to learn a language that is part of her heritage and who she is. We made the choice to learn at home so that she could be around the language from a young age. We did the same for our son. My aunty was our kaiako | teacher and she supported us to learn at home. I feel like I’ve been learning te reo for my kid’s whole life.

My husband is a very good speaker and we both did some extra courses in the earlier years to be in a speaking environment. We only speak Māori to our tamariki. Most of my language is talking to children. This has been successful as we still speak the language at home and my children are now 12 and 9. One great thing is that as a second language learner myself I have to keep my learning up as my children grow.

I hope my children hold on to the language and they are proud to use Māori in everyday life. One day I look forward to Māori being normalised and embraced in Aotearoa. It will be awesome when we can go speak normally in te reo like we do at home but for every day things like ordering at a café, buying our groceries and finding a book at Tūranga.”

-Lou

#Te Wiki i te Reo Māori