Marae visit a highlight of learning

KIA ORA: Ucol students after the first noho marae - overnight marae visit - for the new Level 4 Maori course on campus in Masterton. Lecturer Mike Kawana is at front centre.

A new team of advanced level Maori language students wrapped up Maori Language Week with a 24-hour stay in the Ucol marae in Masterton at the weekend.

The noho marae, or marae stay, was part of a new Level 4 course at the campus.

The weekend included some experience of Maori immersion language learning, a component of the course.

The noho marae finished on Sunday morning with participants sharing their hopes and dreams for the course and their fluency in te reo.

The atmosphere was warm and friendly with plenty of laughter.

One participant spoke of having "a vision where we go for a coffee and all we do is talk te reo".

Speaking the Maori language, gives "an identity and a sense of belonging to our whenua".

Another spoke of having family members who were "professors in te reo", but of not being taught it as a child, and needing the "gentleness" provided by lecturer Mike Kawana.

"I want to be able to be able to talk te reo all the time," said another speaker.

The weekend had provided an opportunity, "just to sit in it and hear the beauty of te reo and the poetry of it".

One man said he had realised "something was missing from me, and it was te ao Maori (the Maori world)".

He said learning it was part of "being a better husband and father.

"Our tamariki are taonga."

Mr Kawana said he "had aspirations for the language, to be heard where we are.

"We want to create that environment where it is normalised.

"Two hundred years ago, our tupuna spoke in te reo all the time," Mr Kawana said.

"I want to experience that; we can do that through these sorts of gatherings."

Mr Kawana told the students: "You all have the ability to converse in te reo, to some degree.

"You're a lot further advanced now ... than yesterday."