Te reo parade to start language week

Plans are under way for the country's first Maori language parade with the idea gaining plenty of support from Te Arawa speakers of te reo Maori.

The parade will take place in Wellington on July 4 from 11am outside Parliament and will make its way to Te Papa Tongarewa via Lambton Quay.

The Maori Language Commission is mobilising hundreds of groups and thousands of people to take part in the event which will kick off this year's Maori Language Week campaign.

Commission chief executive Ngahiwi Apanui said all New Zealanders had a role to play in the revitalisation of te reo.

"We are taking te reo Maori to the streets and making it visible in places and spaces where it isn't.

"We want to involve Maori and non-Maori in the biggest celebration of te reo that our country has ever put on."

Rotorua's Kingi Biddle, a former Toastmasters New Zealand champion, said te reo Maori had a major influence on his speaking and speeches.

"It's awesome they are wanting to do this and I hope all sorts of New Zealanders go along.

"The language can bring us together, as Don Stafford said 'the 1000 years of Aotearoa history is my history too'.

"It's the joining of cultures and the joining of two world views to create our own world for us all.

"There was a time when te reo Maori was only spoken behind closed doors.

"I use whakatauki (proverbs) in my speeches where I try and paint a picture, which all stems from the Maori language," he said.

Rotorua Lakes Council cultural ambassador Trevor Maxwell said he would be putting the date in his dairy and trying to mobilise a Te Arawa contingent to head down.

"It's for a great cause and a celebration of one of the official languages of Aotearoa New Zealand.

"They say the language is dying, but I've seen tremendous changes over the years and a huge improvement in the numbers of bilingual people.

"My kids and my mokopuna start life speaking Maori and that's a change for the good. I'm proud to be an advocate for the language and we can all celebrate the language of the people of this country."

The commission is calling on all groups from the public and private sectors as well as universities, wananga, kura, play centres, kindergartens, kohanga reo, sports teams, kapa haka groups, marae and hapu to join the parade.

Maori Language Week is about raising awareness that te reo Maori is in a perilous state with only one in four Maori people and less than 2 per cent of the country's non-Maori population speaking the language.

The theme for this year's campaign is "akina te reo" which is about using the language to show support, including for our country's athletes who are heading to Rio for the Olympic Games in August.

Each participating group is encouraged to organise a float, be that a bike, car, van or truck adorned in signs and symbols supporting te reo Maori as well as our athletes.