This is important to me for two reasons:
1. We owe it to our tupuna who came before us and who ONLY spoke in reo Māori like my great great Kuia Nanny Te Aue Hohepa nee Tanguru 1890 - 1972 featured in the image who couldn't speak English. Through the impact of colonization, so many of their tamariki, their mokopuna, our elders were swept into te ao Pakeha forced to believe our reo taonga was of no value to use or to feed to the next generations in order to survive let alone thrive in te ao pakeha.
2. We owe it to our tamariki, our mokopuna who need us to lead the way in being part of the movement of restoring and normalizing our reo Māori once again. He reo rangatira, he reo taonga, it is part of who we are, who we come from and where we need to grow. Our past, our present, our future.
Mauri ora!
Erena Thompson
Only found out about this today but before reading the update via Te Tihi O Ruahine page on facebook I was enjoying a beautiful moment singing in Te Reo and counting in Te reo with my baby in the sunshine and lovely spring breeze in my backyard. I was also telling her how important our reo is and how she must learn from mama before she starts her new school which will offer full immersion Te Reo and bilingual options next year when she turns 5. I'll also be sharing my usual one kupu or phrase in Te Reo like I normally do each day for the International students who don't speak English as their first language who enjoy learning our reo and culture through me.
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