Tauranga iwi leader discusses te reo Māori for Māori Language Week

Ngāi te Rangi chief executive Paora Stanley at Wairiki Marae. Photo / Mead Norton

The journey of learning te reo Māori can be "littered with tears and pain", but an iwi leader says it is "absolutely critical" for many Māori.

This week is Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori - Māori Language Week - from September 12 to September 19.

It's been 35 years since te reo Māori became an official language of New Zealand in 1987 after many years of campaigning.

One person who remembers this happening is Ngāi te Rangi chief executive Paora Stanley, who was a university student at the time.

Among himself and his friends, "there was this notion ... which was 'about bloody time. It's about time'."

"We then had to look at ourselves and say, what are we going to do to contribute to this?"

For Stanley, who had his first child around the same time, that meant giving his children the chance to know te reo Māori.

All of his children and grandchildren now speak the language fluently.

"We are reviving our language through our children, our mokopuna."

Both Stanley's father and grandfather were well-known te reo Māori speakers - but they were "brought up in this other era, where it was devalued".

Ngāi te Rangi chief executive Paora Stanley. Photo / Mead Norton

"It [te reo Māori] was withheld from you, for whichever reasons only known to them [those who withheld it], and therefore it means that the rest of us struggle. The struggle is long, arduous, and real."

Stanley had aimed to enter a full-immersion te reo Māori course this year, but his workload made it impossible.

"This is my language, but the work I do is for my people. I do find it hard to balance it."

He puts the effort into learning more however he can, for example, through karakia or waiata.

"You're not walking the journey on your own - you're walking a journey with the hopes of a whole bunch of other people who want exactly the same thing ... [who] rely on you to help lead this."

Stanley said for Māori, the journey to learning their language was "often littered with tears and pain".

He said the expectation Māori would know their language fluently was painful for those who struggled to learn.

"Every single person expects us to be a doyen [respected, experienced person] of te reo Māori, but we're not.

"When you don't measure up to that in front of your peers and your colleagues, you kind of feel like you lose mana along the way."

Ngai Te Rangi chief executive Paora Stanley. Photo / Mead Norton

He said his tribe has around 23,500 people - of those people, he said a little under 30 per cent can hold a conversation in te reo Māori.

He said of the 70 per cent who cannot, he estimated "more than half of them truly want to" learn.

He said the iwi's strategy was to work out how to invite and mobilise those people to have the chance to learn.

He said there were "so many" people who desperately wanted to learn but were struggling to - "it's just heartbreak for people".

"Pākehā people do it [learn te reo Māori] because they have a real interest in it; Māori people want to learn te reo because it's absolutely critical that they should do, in their views and in their minds.

'When you cannot, you're heartbroken, and you feel less than Māori, less than capable."

Thinking back over the last 35 years, he remembered the backlash musician Hinewehi Mohi faced when she sang the national anthem in te reo.

"People crucified her, but now it's every day."

He said he often worked with immigrant communities who would converse with him and his colleagues in te reo Māori.

"The world is changing", he said, and it is changing regardless of those who do not support the use of te reo.

"The world is changing around them - all of us are changing to be more inclusive. It's changing to be more open."