Taking part in this conscious effort to normalise the use of Te Reo, celebrate the language, and not be afraid to give it a go is an important part of my journey to decolonise my world view, and unlearn a lot of the bias I grew up with. When I was younger I often felt too plastic to identify with my Maori heritage, but through starting to learn Te Reo I feel proud and empowered to keep learning more about my background, and to get more confident and build up a habit of using Te Reo in my every day life even if it's just through using Te Reo placenames, greetings and basic phrases to begin with.