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Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Pāhauwera

I am lucky that all my mahi is in te reo Māori, all day, every day at the Museum. As writer/editor, I create text and content in te reo Māori for exhibition and gallery labels all around the Museum for te reo speakers to add more interpretation, stories, and details to all the English text you see in the Museum.

Before working here, whilst at university I was a translator contracted to different public and private-sector entities. But at the Museum I get to tell the stories of the Museum’s collections in te reo for te reo speakers.

Tū kē Tongariro,
Motu kē a Taranaki,
He riri ki a Pihanga,
Waiho i muri nei,
Te uri ko au—e!
Ko Gabriel Tongaawhikau tōku ingoa.

I am a learning specialist in mātauranga Māori at the Auckland Museum. I typically deliver programmes based in science and mātauranga Māori to toddlers, children, and adults. Some of my favourite moments working here at the Museum has been seeing how engaged children are when I incorporate Māori words and mātauranga Māori into mainstream programming. However, the most rewarding part of my work has been teaching our total immersion children in te reo and watching them thrive in spaces which have been historically an exclusionary or traumatic space for Te Ao Māori in the past. 

The introduction of the New Zealand’s history’s curriculum has ensured that local Māori history will be taught to all children across Aotearoa. I have seen the passion in many teachers during our adult workshops and the willingness to learn more about Māori settlement, treaty issues, land wars and how this still affects Māori communities today. If the discussions I have had with these teachers is any indicator of where we will be in the next 50 years, then the future for te ao Māori and te reo Māori will surely be bright and prosperous. 

Ka ai te waka Matahourua ki te toka tū moana a Te Rerenga o Te Aohuruhuru, ā ka kake ake ahau,

Ka huri whakatetonga tōku kānohi, i reira tūtaki ai te awa Mataikona ki te Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa,

Ka whai ōku kānohi i te takutai, ka huri whakatetokerau, i reira rere ai te awa Owahanga,

E karapoti ana aua wai i tōku papakāinga a Te Hika o Papauma.

Koiā hoki te ingoa o te marae, ko Kupe te tangata,

E here ana ō mātou aho ki a Kahungunu, rātou ko Rongomaiwahine, ko Rangitāne, ko Apakura,

Ko Cindy Grace tōku whaea, Ko Mark Brickell tōku pāpā,

Ko Heidi Brickell ahau.

He aho taua pēpēhā mai ōku toto tāwhito rawa atu i tau mai ki tēnei whenua i te waka Matahourua, i te taha o tōku whaea. Kaare ia i whāngai ai i te reo Māori ki au, kaare i a ia te reo, ā ehara tōna aronga ki ngā mātauranga, ko tōna aronga katoa ko te manaaki tangata. I reira ka rangona ai tōna Māoritanga. E hua ake pea tōku aho Māori mā taku wairua mahira, wairua auaha me tōku hiakai ki te mātauranga.

I a au he tamaiti noa kua kā taku roro ki te reo Māori. He reo tuarua ki au. Ka ako ahau ki te kaute tae atu ki te kōtahi rau, ā ka mīharo au i te kitenga he rerekē te whakatakotoranga o ngā whakaaro i te reo Māori ki te whakatakotoranga o ngā whakaaro i te reo Pākehā. Ahakoa e rite ana ngā nama, he rerekē te raupapa me te hāngai o ngā whakaaro. Kua tākaro tōku hinengaro i taua paku māramatanga arā ngā tikanga kaute anō nei he paraka ‘Lego’. Read the rest of Heidi's story here.

_{That pēpēhā links me back through my mother to an ancient time, the bones of remnants of stories which reside on the land described there. She didn’t teach me to speak Māori, she didn’t know how, and wasn’t particularly interested in learning. She expressed her Māoritanga through her relational orientation, her inclusive nature and her love for people. I think that whakapapa expresses itself more through me in curiosity, creativity and playfulness with knowledge.}

_{I was always drawn to te reo Māori as a child. Even learning to count to a hundred, I was fascinated by how its building blocks put things together differently than English did. So, you could say te reo engaged my mind like a Lego set. Read the rest of Heidi's story here.}

On 14 September 1972, Ngā Tamatoa presented a 30,000 signature petition to the Crown to have te reo Māori taught in schools. Hana te Hemara was a founding member of Ngā Tamatoa, and a champion of te reo revitalisation and indigenous rights in Aotearoa. This is the kahu huruhuru worn by Hana Te Hemara when she presented the te reo Māori petition to Parliament. The cloak was loaned from Tāmaki Paenga Hira to Puke Ariki in Taranaki last year to appear in The Life and Times of Ngā Tamatoa exhibition, alongside other personal memorabilia from Ngā Tamatoa members and Hana Te Hamara's whānau.

Every gallery and public space within Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum has been assigned a te reo Māori name. Find out about the meanings of these ingoa, and listen to audio recordings of their pronunciation.

For last year's Te Wiki o te Reo Māori the Museum launched translated te reo interfaces for Collections Online and Online Cenotaph, aiming to broaden the accessibility of the Museum’s online collections. Since then there has been over 120,000 views of the Museum’s online collections in te reo, but we wanted to take a deeper dive and evaluate the project and find out how effective it has been. Earlier this year we worked with Kāhui Tautoko Consulting to survey users about the translation project, and you can find out more about their feedback and some recommendations for further work in this blog post.

A big thanks to InternetNZ for providing the funding for both the initial translation project and the follow up evaluation.

Embedding mātauranga (Māori knowledge frameworks) into the Museum’s education programmes is about more than simply translation of terms. In this blog, we kōrero with Learning Specialist Heidi Brickell about creating environments where te reo Māori speakers can learn in frameworks that align with their language. 

Addressing the lack of te Reo Māori in our institutions is not as easy as simply translating words - we have to revise the very principles we use to organise knowledge. In this blog, Nina Whittaker, Cataloguing Librarian, and Geraldine Warren, Māori Resources & Mātauranga Advisor, shine a light on the role of cataloguing in the decolonisation project.

Geraldine Warren, Māori Resources & Mātauranga Advisor, writes about one of her favourite books in our collection, written in te Reo Māori.

I roto i te whare pukapuka a Tāmaki Paenga Hira tetahi pukapuka tino whakahirahira. Ko te ingoa a tēnei pukapuka, ko Te Atea tērā. Ko Kāterina Mataira (1932-2011) te tino kaituhi, nā Paratene Matchitt ngā whakaahua pikitia. Ki āku nei whakaaro, he toki huna ia, he wahine tuhi kōrero, he manu kōrero hoki ko Kahurangi Katerina Te Heikoko Mataira. He pukapuka tamariki tāna. I tino ahua māmā noa iho ngā kupu engari tino hōhonu rawa atu te whai whakaaro.

Me tirohia ki tētahi wāhanga 
Ko ētahi he wāhine
Ko ētahi he tāne
Ko ētahi he tamariki

Ko ētahi he māori
Ko ētahi he mangu
Ko ētahi he hainamana
Ko ētahi he pākehā

E kimi tahi ana
E hanga tahi ana
E noho tahi ana

Tino ātaahua, rawa hoki. Ko te tino ohia ka taea tōku reo māmā o nāianei kia tupu ai ki te reo rangatira. Kia kaha te Reo Māori!

Abstract: Shout out to Māori Language week. Within Auckland War Memorial Museum collections is a wonderful publication for school children written by Katerina Mataira (1932-2011) and illustrated by Para Matchitt. Although the words are simple, the meanings are deep and powerful. Dame Katerina Mataira was a skilled author and orator who revealed beauty and ugliness seamlessly.