I was born and raised in Australia, all I knew was that I was part Māori. Somehow my mother was able to make us proud to be 'part' Māori. I decided to do an 'oe' back in the 80's for the purpose of learning te reo Maori, after my 12 months I returned to Australia. Then moved to NZ in 1991 when I was hapu with my son as I didn't want my children growing up being mistaken for being from a different ethnicity (Italia, Greek, Chinese). I grew up hearing the stories of how my mother was strapped at school for speaking / uttering kupu Maori. We are surrounded by kupu Maori in Aotearoa and our kupu / reo deserves to be pronounced properly.
Comments