Morrison says she “had an ugly, awkward, embarrassing public learning journey that I am grateful for.”
For broadcaster, author and te reo translator Stacey Morrison, Te Wiki o te Reo Māori is not about perfection. It’s about courage and care.
“It’s the language of this land,” she tells Paula Bennett on this week’s episode of Bennett’s podcast Ask Me Anything.
“It’s theplaces we live, it’s our suburbs, it’s our names, it’s that feeling like if anyone has ever got goosebumps when they watch haka... and that to me means that te reo Māori is part of you and it’s something that speaks to you on a higher level.”
Morrison says fear of getting it wrong isn’t a reason to shy away from speaking te reo, admitting her own journey was imperfect.
“I had an ugly, awkward, embarrassing public learning journey that I am grateful for.”
She says the lesson is to show up with intent and aroha.
“Aroha is not just love. It’s compassion and it’s empathy and it’s sympathy. We’ve all got a different engagement with this official language that only comes from here. Mine is maybe not the same as yours, but what I do know is aroha will make it better.”
“Language learning is such a beautiful thing. You learn more about your first language by learning another language… you’ve got this universal dashboard in your brain that’s choosing which language should I use? It staves off all of those aspects of your brain falling apart.”
Broadcaster and author Stacey Morrison is passionate about encouraging others on their te reo journey. Photo / supplied
Debates about where te reo is positioned on passports are “honestly...boring,” Morrison says. She considers the Government’s decision to redesign New Zealand passports to put the English text above the te reo Māori as “an attack on the status of the language... because it’s not about comprehension. It’s really not.”
Morrison would rather move forward and focus on encouraging others to embrace te reo. She recently translated David Hill’s children’s bookMother of the Nation: Whina Cooper and the Long Walk for Justiceinto te reo Māori, and has written several books to help guide readers through their te reo journey.
For nervous beginners she passes on advice from fellow te reo Māori champion, Dame Hinewehi Mohi: “Just speak Māori.”
