Melanie Groves is learning te reo Maori to preserve her culture and heritage for herself. Photo / Ben Fraser
Melanie Groves is learning te reo Maori to preserve her culture and heritage for herself. Photo / Ben Fraser
A Rotorua woman is determined to learn te reo Maori as a way to reconnect to her culture and heritage.
Former Rotorua TV News presenter Melanie Groves is three weeks into taking weekly night classes at Waiariki Institute of Technology, where she is learning the language at a beginner's level.
She said her class of about 30 students was filled with all ethnicities, who were embracing te reo.
Ms Groves said there were both personal and professional reasons for her to take that step to learn - she has a Maori mother (Tuhoe) and was brought up by her English- Dutch heritage father, who "felt pride in pronouncing Maori words properly".
"Growing up, I was fortunate to have exposure in school, and my mother's family also taught me quite a lot at a young age, but that's all gone now. There were so many, many reasons [to learn] but for me it was preserving for myself what I already have, but developing it more," Ms Groves said. "It was about being able to reconnect to my culture and my heritage, and often when I'm around my family, who speak English maybe 20 per cent of the time, I would like to fully understand what they're saying." Ms Groves said from a professional perspective it opened many gateways.
"Te reo is just as unique as any other culture. We take it for granted because we're here in New Zealand, we're fully immersed in it. Whether you decide to pursue it is just a matter of choice but, if you look at it from an outside perspective, it's completely enchanting," she said.
"Coming from a media background and working in television, it's so unprofessional to pronounce Maori words incorrectly, and I believe that picking up your ability to speak te reo is a development of your professional self."
She said learning te reo had given her the confidence to share the language with her three children.
