Accessible ways to learn te reo Māori

Whenever we come up to Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, it’s a recognition of all the efforts since that day in 1972 when Te Petihana Reo Māori (The Māori Language Petition) was presented at Parliament, calling for Māori language and culture to be taught in all schools. Since the Māori renaissance of the 1970s, te reo Māori has made a great recovery, being restored in families and communities, and embraced by non-Māori. 

But language revitalisation is never without its challenges. The fight continues for funding in the Māori education system, mātauranga Māori continues to be systemically undermined, and not everyone has the same access to learning te reo Māori. 

The Government’s treatment of disabled people and Māori share commonalities. Schooling was used to assimilate Māori and Deaf students, the eugenics movement attempted to sift out those who disrupted the white settler nation, and law and media played into the miscarriages of justice and othering of disabled and Māori. 

Tāngata whaikaha Māori are deprived of their tino rangatiratanga every time they are unable to embark on a marae. Mana motuhake is hard to achieve when Māori learning programs and resources are inaccessible. 

And when it comes to whānau whaikaha – whether Māori or tauiwi – learning te reo Māori, inaccessibility can be a major barrier to something that is possibly already heavy on the wairua (spirit). So here are some ideas, keeping in mind that everyone’s access needs are different. So what works really well for one person, may be an inaccessible nightmare for another.

Waiata

Singing is an awesome way to practise pronunciation as vowel sounds sung are the same as they are spoken. The Aotearoa Songbook is a collection of 22 iconic waiata Māori. With each waiata is an explanatory kōrero, studio audio recording, lyrics PDF, sheet music and lyric video. As you learn waiata, you’re also picking up new words, kupu whakarite (metaphors) and iwi histories. 

Watch the news in Māori

Te Karere is one of the few always-available reo Māori shows that has closed captioning (if you watch On Demand). The CC is in English, so while you’re listening to the reporting in Māori, you can follow the translated captions. The news is full of modern words relevant to things happening around the world now, and demonstrates the exchange of dialogue. 

Find a show 

Te Māngai Paho is the Crown entity responsible for the promotion of Māori language, and they fund heaps of TV programming, films and songs which include differing levels of te reo Māori. 

• If you’re just starting on your haerenga (journey), Dead Ahead is a new family comedy about a Māori family who have moved back home to find that they’re living among their late tūpuna (ancestors). The show is predominantly in English with Māori kupu sprinkled in and it is closed captioned. 
• Pathfinders follows Māori leaders who were raised through the challenging years where te reo Māori was shunned. The show is bilingual and most episodes have closed captions which follow whatever language is being spoken. However, the Māori captions don’t have tohutō (macrons).
  
  Broadcast television captions are unable to display tohutō and so they aren’t included in caption files. These captions files then get repurposed for on demand streaming so they display without tohutō either. 
• Let’s Talk About Ai — no, not AI, but ai, as in sex. This digital podcast-style series on Youtube, hosted by Pere Wihongi, dives deep into honest conversations around sexual health. The show is mostly in Māori and is captioned in English. 
• A hidden gem is Te Reo Rangatira, which are short documentaries on YouTube following the journey of those who have risen to the challenge of learning Māori as a second language. The show is mostly in Māori and subtitled in English. 
• If you’re conversational, you may like to try watching some Māori Disney, available on Disney+. The collection currently includes Moana, Moana 2, The Lion King, Frozen, Encanto and Coco, and each focuses on different mita (dialects) of Māori. The films have optional closed captions in English. 

There are some major accessibility barriers for Māori media. One is that the player for Māori+ doesn’t support closed captions which means people who rely on closed captions are excluded from some of the best reo Māori programming, including those designed to teach te reo. There are some excellent shows like Waka Huia, Being Turi and Kairākau that have captions edited into the cut which are helpful for sighted watchers, but less so for those who use other technologies such as a Braille display to read closed captioning. 

Social media 

One of my favourite TikTok creators, @carlinshaw, combines spoken reo, text on screen and actions to help you get used to the difference between English and Māori syntax (word order). 

Many reo Māori creators are active on Instagram:

• Hēmi Kelly on @everydaymaori (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok) posts handy little reels to show you how to use certain words and phrases in everyday speech.
• Mahinga Kai hosted by Rangi Matamua and Te Ao Pewhairangi is a bilingual series on the revitalisation of mātauranga Māori to achieve food sovereignty.
• Ohinga produces current affairs reels focused on what’s important to rangatahi (young people). Their reels are on TikTok, Instagram and Youtube.
• Mouri_reo posts reels from the teachings of matanga reo (language experts) from previous wānanga. These explanations are in Māori and are great for those at a more advanced level. 

A lot of content comes in the form of reels, but there are other pages on Instagram like @generationreo.nz, @reomaorimai, @whakamiere, @kura.rehia, and @mind.yourtongue who post useful visual text slides explaining the use of te reo. 

Popular Facebook groups like Maori 4 Grown Ups, Te Mana o Te Reo Māori and Mahuru Māori, which have tens of thousands of members, are great to float around in to stay posted on events, initiatives and new people to follow, and to ask questions. 

Accessible Library 

The Blind Low Vision NZ Library includes Braille and e-braille collections and audiobooks which can be accessed through Alexa or through the EasyReader app. Already, there is Māori Made Easy 1 and 2 and Māori At Home available. If there are books you’d like transcribed into e-braille, you can make a request through the Accessible Formats Service which is subsidised for BLVNZ members. 

Podcasts with show notes

A structured podcast at a sensible length with supporting show notes can make all the difference. RNZ comes through with two great podcasts of this category. Whakamāori brings together reo Māori experts to translate short, iconic texts and talk through their thinking. Kīwaha - Give it a go! are 5-10 minute long episodes which focus on the use of a handful of kīwaha (colloquialisms) and whakataukī (proverbs). Each episode is watchable as a video and the show notes (under episode details) include a printable PDF of the translations. 

Everyday Māori hosted by Hēmi Kelly gets an honourable mention for bite-sized podcasts focusing on the conversational language for one context each episode. Season 2 of Everyday Māori includes printable scripts. 

Te Ataarangi

Not a books person? How about cuisenaire rods? Te Ataarangi is a 46-year-old movement and method using colourful rākau to help return the language from the tip of the pen to the tip of the tongue in a fun, immersive environment. The method was developed by Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira and Ngoi Pēwhairangi when they observed these rods being used in Fiji through a language teaching method called The Silent Way. The rods can be used to visually demonstrate grammatical structures, represent physical objects and show sentence and word stress. Find a class, hui or event in your region. 

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Whatever you use to support your knowledge of te reo Māori is a contribution to the revitalisation of this national taonga. Ko te pae tawhiti, whāia kia tata. Ko te pae tata whakamaua kia tina! Seek to bring distant horizons closer, and sustain and maintain those that have been arrived at. 

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