Māori Language week is getting a bit like long weekends – we know they are coming, we really enjoy them, but what will we actually do?
You may already have a plan – if so, don’t read any more! If not, read on – because ideas for Māori Language Week are endless. You can celebrate yourself, in your family, in your workplace or join an event like the big parades and similar events happening around the country.
Most of these ideas are about finding resources on line and using them by yourself or in a group.
In workplaces and other groups we suggest getting a few people together and browsing this list. Check out the ideas and the links and pick a few that you can use. Don’t try to do more than you can manage – but try to do what you can manage. And make it fun, and use activities to promote your own business, team or activity.
And remember – there are people from all sorts of backgrounds and all levels of ability needed to revitalise te reo Māori. It needs to be revitalised because lots of the Māori people have for one reason or another not acquired as much language as they would like. Just ask people if they’d like to take part in your activites – don’t begin by making assumptions about what people know or should know.
Māori language is not just about learning and using – it’s also about promoting the status of te reo Māori, about deeping criticial awareness of revitalisation and the the place of te reo in Aotearoa.
Simply finding out about what young people in your family are learning at school and encouraging them is one way of producing more speakers in the coming generation – even if you don’t ever learn much yourself.
*He aha te kupu Māori mō ‘oodles’?
