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For Tuterangiwhiu Grant-Cairns (Te Arawa, Ngāi Tūhoe), te reo Māori is life.
"It gives me purpose, and it provides a way for me to help and connect to our people. No matter where in the world they are."
Grant-Cairns and his wife Carmen founded Online Reo Agency or ORA in their little spare room in Berkshire Park, New South Wales, Australia in 2019.
ORA's goal is for te reo Māori to be "the spoken" language of Aotearoa.
"[The dream is] for all of our babies to be confident and proud of who they are, where they come from, and for them to hear their reo spoken and understood on their ancestral lands," Grant-Cairns said.
On a personal level, Grant-Cairns said he wanted to prevent others from experiencing the "shame" and difficulties he encountered on his own reo Māori learning journey.
Online Reo Agency, ORA founder Tuterangiwhiu Grant-Cairns Te Arawa, Ngāi Tūhoe.
"My initial introduction to learning te reo Māori was like going from the desert straight to the bottom of the ocean," Grant-Cairns said.
Grant-Cairns said he knew extremely little prior to his first reo Māori class.
"I knew 'Kia ora' and I knew how to hongi, that's it. And it was a constant feeling of unworthiness, shame that it wasn't coming to me naturally and embarrassment from being told that I am from both Te Arawa and Ngāi Tūhoe and I should know my reo.
"These are the things that I wanted to remove and make sure that no one who comes to me to learn te reo Māori ever has to feel or experience."
Grant-Cairns said ORA began out of necessity.
"It was because of the limited resources I myself had wanting to further progress my reo Māori whilst living in Australia.
"You could only get so far until there was nothing else available to progress into the higher levels of understanding and use of te reo Māori. So I became the resource for our people living outside of Aotearoa."
The ORA team teach te reo Māori via remote, online learning, workplace programmes and face-to-face classes. They also provide translation services to government organisations and private businesses.
Local clients include the Bay of Plenty Regional Council Toi Moana, the Department of Conservation and Thompkins Wake.
Tuterangiwhiu Grant-Cairns (third from right) with the staff of Online Reo Agency or ORA.
Overseas, ORA has students in Australia and as far afield as the United Kingdom.
Over the last two years, ORA has gone from a bedroom-founded company to providing lessons to approximately 200 students.
Parramatta Eels sports chaplain and wellbeing mentor George Dansey said he could see the results of ORA's approach in the team's junior squad members.
"I can see that the boys are really finding their identity and are discovering who they actually are and I think the language has helped them figure out where they come from, where they are and where they are heading has helped.
"I've heard them talking Māori and they greet each other and the homework that [ORA have] provided has really helped.
"We didn't want someone who would just tick a box but one that is actually meaningful, connected and will actually get the message across and I think [ORA has] really done that."
Grant-Cairns said the well-being benefits of learning te reo Māori did not just apply to Māori.
"I would absolutely encourage everyone to learn te reo Māori.
"Ko te reo Māori te tuituinga o te tirohanga tawhito me te tirohanga hou o tōu ao. The Māori language is binding of the old perspective and the new perspective of your world."
