Rumaki Cafe executive director Miraka Davies came up with the idea for Rumaki three years ago. Photo / Sacha Kahaki
Rumaki Cafe executive director Miraka Davies came up with the idea for Rumaki three years ago. Photo / Sacha Kahaki
A cafe opening in Rotorua is taking te reo Māori revitalisation to the next level — by removing English from the menu, the counter and the conversation.
Ordering a coffee at Rumaki Cafe will come with one firm expectation: from the front counter to the kitchen, te reo Māori willbe the only language spoken.
Rumaki has taken over what used to be Kai Caff Aye on Fenton St and is believed to be Aotearoa’s first full immersion te reo Māori cafe.
Executive director Miraka Davies (Ngāti Rehua, Ngātiwai ki Aotea, Ngāti Porou) told the Rotorua Daily Post there were no other spaces in New Zealand that would be “really firm” like Rumaki.
“If you’re in there, and take a phone call and you need to speak English on that phone call, we’re going to want you to step outside.
Davies said other cafes around the country were “reo rua” (bilingual), but she believed there had never been a commercial everyday space where no English was used.
“We’re explicitly only using te reo Māori.”
She said Rumaki’s doors were open to “absolutely anybody”.
Rumaki Cafe executive director Miraka Davies. Photo / Sacha Kahaki
“It doesn’t matter your culture, if you don’t know how to speak the language, if you want to experience it and you’re willing to give it a go, we’ll be there to support and help you to do it.”
Davies said she wasn’t raised speaking te reo Māori and that was a source of “grief and distress” for many within the culture.
“I don’t think I’ll ever say I’m fluent, but you come out of that being able to hold a conversation, able to function completely in te reo Māori, it’s a life-changing year.”
She said that for people who didn’t live in households where te reo was spoken, the options for using the language were limited.
“I was literally just feeling sorry for myself, because it’s so hard, and I didn’t want to lose it.”
This is where the “vision” for Rumaki came from three years ago.
“Imagine if just an everyday thing, like having a coffee, or having some lunch, happened at a place where you were surrounded by te reo Māori, that’s where the vision came from.”
Staff won’t need any hospitality experience, and will only be hired if they can “already exist” in a total immersion environment.
The menu will be designed by Māori chefs Kārena and Kasey Bird, who will work with Davies to develop a menu to match the cafe’s vision.
Customers and staff at Rumaki Cafe will be expected to order and converse in te reo Māori.
Davies said there would be a visual self-identification system, so customers could communicate their te reo Māori speaking capability to staff.
“It might just be a little paddle that you can pick up at the door that says what your level of te reo is.
“An egg because you’re not even a chicken that’s started breaking out of the egg yet and you’ve got no te reo Māori, or it might be an eagle because you can soar.”
She said there would also be QR codes to a website with a “great system” of translations, vocab and other useful phrases.
“You could be standing at the counter to order, push play, listen to the sentence of how to order a coffee, and then you repeat it.
“As long as someone’s willing to give it a go, then we will be able to help them with that.”
Kaitlyn Morrell is a journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.
