“Tena koutou katoa, piki mai kake mai ki runga i te waka rererangi nei o Aotearoa e rere atu ana ki Turanganui-a-Kiwa, ka nui te mihi atu ki a koutou katoa . . . ko nga matapae huarere mo ta tatau rere he ahua pai, he marangai engari ka pai tonu te rere na reira kia pai te noho ma Lauren koutou e tiaki, e manaaki na reira Lauren kei a koe e hoa.”
Translated: “Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Air NZ flight to Gisborne. Warm greetings to you all. The weather conditions of the flight to Gisborne are smooth — a little bit of rain but still generally smooth conditions so sit back and relax. I’ll hand it over to Lauren who will look after you. Over to you Lauren.”
Towards the end of the flight, Kiran spoke in te ro Maori again.
“Kia ora mai ano tatau kua tata tatau ki Turanga, tekau ma tahi te pa mahana na reira kei te mihi atu ki a koutou i rere mai ma runga i te waka rererangi o Aotearoa, kia pai te po . . . ma te wa!”
Translated: “Good evening once again ladies and gentlemen. We are almost at our destination in Gisborne. It’s 11 degrees. Thank you very much everybody for flying Air NZ, hope you have a wonderful evening and see you again soon.”
Matai was flabbergasted.
“I was like, who is this fulla? He is the man,” Matai said.
Matai wanted to find out if the pilot was from the East Coast because his fluency and mita (dialect) sounded a lot like the region.
As he disembarked, Matai went to the cockpit and said: “te rawe hoki o to reo e hoa (your reo is beautiful my friend).”
Lo and behold he was staring at a young, quietly-spoken Indian man, who replied, “Oh tena koe . . .”
Matai later found out Kiran was born in Wellington and in April his whanau celebrated 100 years of being in Aotearoa.
The pilot credited his appreciation of te reo to his great-grandfather who, while working in forestry in the 1920s, interacted with Maori for the first time — listening and learning basic te reo.
He told Kiran it was important to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and be a true partner as tauiwi (non-Maori).
“I think it is important for us to speak te reo Maori whenever we can,” Kiran said.
“I am not a graduate of any te reo course. I have learned it through accessing online resources and listening to it on the radio and from people around me.”
Kiran speaks te reo at least once a day when flying. He feels the wairua (spirit) of the places he travels to and believes speaking the language is the right thing to do
He had often heard about how the language might die if no one spoke it so after Maori Language Week in 2018, he consciously decided to use te reo when he could.
Fellow pilots Angela Cronin and Sara Mulvey, who also speak in te reo when flying, helped build his confidence to use it.
Matai waited for Kiran to disembark the plane to get his name and tell him how impressed he was, to which he humbly replied: “I just give it my best. I really love te reo Maori.”
By Friday morning, Matai’s post had received 20,000 reacts, 1100 comments and 4400 shares.
“Kiran, you are an exemplar for all pilots throughout the country to aspire to,” Matai said. “May you continue to ascend to greater heights in both your flying and reo journey.”
