Te reo wananga at Muriwai Marae

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

GROWING te reo Maori through language planning is the focus of a wananga that will be held at Muriwai Marae this weekend.

The wananga, which is called Te Kura Whakarauora, is a national programme that aims to grow the language in homes and communities through planning, support and resources.

Over two and a half days, Kura Whakarauora will feature presentations and workshops delivered by renowned and experienced Maori language speakers and planners.

The aim is to assist people who are passionate about revitalising the language in their communities, to create their own language plans to reach their goals.

Facilitator Shane Taurima says language planning is a key step in revitalising and regenerating te reo Maori within communities – whanau, marae, hapu, iwi, kura (schools), kohanga reo and other community groups.

“Our language is at risk. The number of reo speakers is in decline and if we continue to do the same things and in the same way we will get the same results.

“Kura Whakarauora is a new and fun way of supporting whanau to use te reo Maori in their homes and in their communities.

“Our team of language revitalisation experts (Scotty Morrison, Stacey Morrison, Tatere MacLeod, Louise Whaanga, Rawinia Higgins, Vini Olsen-Reder and myself) work with whanau to develop language plans, set goals and support them to achieve their goals.

Te reo needs to survive“We need to take action if we want our reo to survive. Kura Whakarauora is a call to arms for all reo warriors to come together and plan for the future.

“Everyone says that the language is a taonga, but what are they doing to protect the taonga? If we want our language to survive, it must be part of our everyday lives.”

Kura Whakarauora differs from Kura Reo and other te reo Maori programmes by focusing on language planning strategies, tools and approaches rather than focusing directly on language acquisition and use.

Mr Taurima says language planning helps to identify the Maori language needs of individual communities.

“It sets goals for language acquisition and use. It also plans out in manageable steps how to go about achieving those language goals.

“Language planning is really important because it helps us track what we are doing and if it is getting us where we want to get to.

“The focus tends to be on language acquisition i.e. how we make people more fluent. Rather, the focus should be on how many people know the language, what level of proficiency we want, what resources are required.”

The wananga will be held at Muriwai Marae, Muriwai from February 23-25.

People must register to attend. For more information visit www.kurawhakarauora.co.nz or the Kura Whakarauora Facebook page.