I am a New Zealander of European origin (several generations back ) and I have made several failed attempts to learn Te Reo Maori over the years. I returned to NZ 12 years ago after spending 12 years living overseas in French places and began teaching music again and also ended up teaching French. One day it just struck me as all wrong to be teaching a foreign language when I couldn't even speak the language of the original New Zealanders. After questioning myself over whether it was OK as a pakeha to do this ( was it tokenism ? was it my place as a pakeha ? etc ) I came to the decision ( realisation ? ) that it was actually my duty as a NZer to learn this language. It's the best way to give the language, and therefore the culture, the respect, value and place it should have in our country. So I'm doing it - learning through Te Wananga O Aotearoa and wanting to take part on Sept 14th. The best outcome would be that it reminds many of us to use these words every day and that we all do it more and more ....
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