Ngahi Bidois: It took three generations to reclaim our language

The four generations of te reo speakers in our whānau took more than 30 years to develop, writes Ngahi Bidois. Photo / NZME

OPINION
Ōku whakaaro - My thoughts

Why should you learn te reo Māori? In a nutshell, if our whānau can learn te reo so can you.

My whānau - meaning my parents, two brothers and sister - lost te reo Māori in one generation when my mother and father were assaulted at school every day until they stopped speaking te reo Maori.

My mother was a full-blooded Māori and my father was Māori and French.

Both my parents spoke only Māori when they went to school.

It was the only language they knew. Until they had te reo strapped out of them.

So when I was born as their eldest son they chose to not teach me te reo Māori.

We had lost te reo Māori in one generation. It took us three generations to get it back.

Move forward to when I am about 23, and my beautiful Pākehā wife, Carolyn, came home after a five-minute conversation with her te reo lecturer Taiarahia Black at Massey University and said, "Honey, if we are blessed to have children I would like us to only speak te reo Māori to them."

Our two kids attended kohanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori. We spoke only Māori in our home.

Consequently, they spoke only te reo to their grandfather (my father) so he relearned his mother tongue.

My mother had died before they were born.

My father relearned his language to the extent that he sits on the pae at our marae and represents our whanau and iwi at formal hui.

He is the tuakana or eldest son of the eldest son in our whānau and the only one with rights to speak at our marae. So prior to his relearning we had no voice at the marae.

Now, we have four generations who korero i te reo Māori.

People question the relevance of te reo in today's world. My son is a medical doctor who speaks te reo to his patients.

His patients have told me of the joy of meeting my son in hospital and being able to converse in their native tongue in a space where they previously could not.

That alone makes them feel safer and places more confidence in our health system.

My daughter completed a nursing degree and is now in med school training to become a doctor. She has received similar positive comments from the people in her care.

I used to work in the corporate sector prior to learning te reo Māori.

However, when I started learning te reo Māori I changed to the education sector.

So since starting my te reo learning journey I have been a secondary school head of Māori studies, a kura kaupapa Māori teacher, a lecturer of te reo Māori at a teachers' college and the head of a tertiary polytechnic School of Māori Studies.

I am now on seven boards and chair four of those seven boards.

Six of those boards are Māori organisation boards.

We speak Māori to different levels in each of those boards. I was the first Māori elected to chair the Eastern Fish & Game board.

We start and end each council meeting in te reo Maori with a welcome greeting and karakia.

Te reo Māori is relevant in many places.

My wife Carolyn's journey has included becoming the first person in her whānau to get a degree.

She holds a BA in Management Information Systems and Māori Studies.

She speaks fluent te reo Māori and has been supported by many Māori who have taught her karanga, tikanga and other Māori protocols.

She has marked tertiary te reo Māori papers at the invitation of one of her lecturers, Pare Richardson, and has been a lecturer of te reo Māori at a teachers' training institute.

She still teaches te reo Māori and has been adopted by my tribes to the extent that she now sits in the wharenui supporting my father and others with waiata.

We are both still learning te reo through night classes. Our learning will never stop.

I often hear Pākehā say they don't know where or how to start learning te reo Māori.

My answer is to learn one word or number at a time wherever you are.

The four generations of te reo speakers in our whānau took more than 30 years to develop.

It all started with my beautiful Pākehā wife saying to her Māori husband: "If we are blessed to have children I would like us to only speak Maori to them."

If we can learn te reo Māori, so can you.

Kia kaha kia maia. Korero mai i te reo Maori.

Ngahihi o te ra Bidois is an international keynote speaker, businessman, author, husband, father and MBA. A Maori boy from Awahou.