KAPAI: Open up to Te Reo _ a priceless gift we can share

Sitting in a rererangi (aeroplane) looking out over the Southern Alps can take a man's breath away, especially when it's a crystal clear autumnal afternoon like it was today.
Way up there where Rangi (sky) and Papa (earth) meet in the wharenui (meeting house) of forever, life's lessons seem so succinctly simple and as always when I get clarity of thought I got a song in my head to garnish the gift that the lesson is teaching me.
The song was Words by the Bee Gees and it kicked in a mile high in the sky when I started thinking about an email I received last night from a concerned parent of a pupil at one of our most successful learning institutions here in Tauranga Moana.
The writer was telling me how her daughter wished to learn Te Reo Maori (the Maori language) but because the one and only tutor had left the school, there was no one qualified to help make her daughter's dream come true.
Sadly it had been left to the non-Maori teachers, whose pronunciation was poor and protocol even poorer.
Her question carried a sincerity that deserved a sincere answer and up there in the long white clouds of wisdom the brothers Gibb's lyrics brought me words to give her back.
I remembered travelling with my trusty typewriter back in the day of the big backpacking hikoi and how I would teach the Balinese kids to type while they taught me their language. Balinese is not Indonesian but a very colourful, picture-painting language not unlike Te Reo Maori, and after six weeks of immersing myself I could hold a decent conversation with my tamariki (children) tutors and they could type 20 words a minute.
Surely in our elite learning institutions like Bethlehem College, Aquinas and other private pay-as-you-play kura (schools), where French, German, Latin and Mandarin are the main second languages learned, we could accommodate the language of the long white cloud.
Is it not a matter of marrying up the many Maori speakers who are graduating from our wananga _ and while we are at it, why not incorporate weaving into the arts curriculum as well as carving and kapahaka (dance).
Perhaps the stumbling block of secular verses and spiritual teachings could become a stepping stone for celebration of our indigenous culture, and by making the culture cool for our Kiwi kids we begin to break the cycle of cringe that so many feel but so few will publicly speak of.
Kids love languages, they love learning new stuff and they don't hold the hindrances of yesterday's grievances that seem to handbrake all of us Kiwis, Maori and non-Maori.
If I could turn back time I would have loved to have learned a language alive with the sounds and the stories of Maori, just like I did when I lived in Bali and learned Balinese, and when I lived in southern France and learned conversational French.
And just like my tamariki tutors back in Bali, it will be our Tauranga tamariki who teach Tauranga Te Reo Maori, if we can take the time to listen and learn.
Maybe Maurice and his Bee Gees brothers were on to it back then and a bit of advice can be gleaned from the lyrics of their classic song Words. "This world has lost its glory. Let's start a brand new story, right now, my love. Right now, there'll be no other time, and I can show you how, my love. Smile an everlasting smile, a smile can bring you near to me. It's only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away."
Maybe it is that simple and learning a language is just like starting a brand new story, who knows? I guess we won't know until we have a go and from where I was sitting up on the roof of the world this afternoon it made perfect sense to speak a language that can be found in our own backyard.
And what better time to start a brand new story than right now, so a weekly word in this column is my koha (gift) to the caring parent who took the time to talk about the dreams of her daughter.
The word is Koha (a gift) and if we can share in the gift of our own language then it is a gift we can give our kids and each other.
Enjoy the koha.
Pai marire
tommy@indigenius.org