Discovering ancestors, building a family future and expanding one’s worldview.
These are some of the benefits locals from migrant backgrounds say they have experienced via learning te reo Māori.
Sandra Velarde, from Peru, already speaks three languages: Spanish, Portuguese and English. She wants te reo Māori to be her fourth language.
“When I came to New Zealand to work in forestry, I was working with Ngāti Porou on the East Coast, and the people I worked with inspired me to learn,” she said.
“I think the only way to understand the minds and hearts of people is to understand their culture, and the best way to do that is through language.”
Velarde is now in her third year of te reo studies. She attends classes twice a week at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. Each class is about two and a half hours long.
“I started [learning te reo Māori] for work. Now I keep learning for the people.”
A highlight of Velarde’s te reo journey has been learning her pepeha [a method of introduction in which one elucidates their personal background].
“Seeing how the connection to land and to people was expressed pushed me to look into my own family tree.”
After two years of research, she has traced both sides of her family back seven generations, and she plans to keep going.
“I’m a bit obsessive, so I got deep into it,” Velarde said.
Velarde’s search led to the discovery of her own indigenous ancestors.
“My great-great-grandmother was Rosario Huaman. ‘Huaman’ means falcon in Quechua.”
Velarde said it was “fantastic” to be able to trace her family roots all the way to the mountainous Andes of Cajamarca in the north of Peru.
“In Peru, many know they have indigenous ancestors but we tend to hide them. I was happy to finally find that connection.”
April Lee said when she arrived in New Zealand from Korea in 2018 she didn’t know much about New Zealand. But one of the first things she wanted to do was to learn te reo.
“That was what I wanted to do to settle into the environment.”
Te reo would soon become April Lee’s fourth language. She can speak Korean, English and Japanese as well.
“There was a lot in common between Japanese and te reo. They have the same vowel system.”
Lee, from Springfield in Rotorua, said she and her husband, who grew up in Gisborne, also wanted to give their children the opportunity to learn te reo. They enrolled their son in a kōhanga reo. He now attends a kura kaupapa Māori.
“At first, I taught him,” Lee said.
“Now he teaches me.”
Lee began her te reo journey at Toi Ohomai, learning for three hours once a week.
“I can’t praise my kaiako [teacher] enough, because she was my first teacher,” Lee said.
“Now I’m going once a week to language classes at my son’s kura, Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Hurungaterangi.”
Lee said she and her husband went to classes together.
“We learn as a family, and this [has] become our weekly activity.”
Lee said the more she learned, the more she was convinced that beginning and continuing her te reo journey had been the best decision.
“What I would say to others is just one word: karawhiua. Go for it.”
Stella Vokia-Scarlett’s mother immigrated to New Zealand from the Solomon Islands just before Vokia-Scarlett was born.
The 25-year-old Welcome Bay-based graphic designer said she was brought up in quite a spiritual environment, and this resonated with the Māori worldview.
“Te ao Māori views things from a spiritual lens, considering the natural world and the spiritual world.”
Vokia-Scarlett said learning te reo Māori has helped her to look through these lenses and that has informed her own worldview.
“I always wanted to learn te reo, and I [was] fortunate enough to be raised in New Zealand, where that’s possible,” Vokia-Scarlette said.
“But it wasn’t until I went to the Wairarapa and was living with rangatahi Māori that I signed up to a beginners’ course.”
When she came back to Tauranga, Vokia-Scarlett continued her studies.
“The Māori language is quite symbolic and beautiful,” Vokia-Scarlett said.
“It’s been a really good experience.”
Vokia-Scarlett said her advice to anyone beginning their te reo Māori journey was to weave the vocabulary they learned into conversations.
“Everyday use is better than no use.”
Maryana Garcia is a regional reporter writing for the Rotorua Daily Post and the Bay of Plenty Times.