A Maori Podcast

Kia ora!

Most of us know who Maui is, most of us have also heard or read some of the korero surrounding Maui. Today I wanted to share a story taken from George Grey's collection, Ko Nga Mahinga A Nga Tupuna. You can read along here:

https://archive.org/details/kongamahingaang00greygoog/page/n26/mode/2up

I try to say it when I can, so here it is again - George Grey went about collecting our korero, would make edits to fit a certain narrative, and often omit where and who he collected our korero from. Te Rangikāheke was Grey's main pou, with Te Rangikāheke writing over 800 pages.

Whakatauki: Ko Maui Tinihanga - Maui of many devices. A cunning person like Maui. [Murdoch Riley, 57-2]

Kia ora ra e te iwi! I have a Patreon where I hope to add some additional value. If you'd like the kaupapa, and you appreciate this mahi, you can give a koha here:

A Maori Podcast

E hoa ma! I'm excited to share with you the Maori language challenge I've set for myself. Basically, I'm introducing an old custom, an old practice that was quite common amongst our tupuna. That is implementing tapu onto our speech.

In the past, sometimes the name of a Rangatira would become tapu, which then meant that any utterance of any portion of their name was also tapu, and Maori had to come up with another word. This custom has been practiced all across Pasifika nations, and is not unique to Maori. A somewhat recent example of this was when the word "wai" became tapu, during that time, the iwi of the rohe could not utter that word. So for a short while, Waikato was known as Ngongikato.

My hope is that by reimplementing this practice into my life I can expand my vocabulary, and I can become a much better speaker of our taonga tuku iho.

At this time, I'm currently using Te Wiremu to find new terms, however the difficulty arises when only a word is provided and no context is given. I'm bound to make mistakes, and errors, and likely often will utter a word I've deemed tapu (I've already picked up a one's already after releasing this episode) however that's all part of the learning process.

Here is my current list of words that I have now made tapu:

1. ahua
2. ataahua
3. engari
4. haere
5. hanga
6. hiahia / pirangi
7. hikoi
8. iti
9. iwi
10. kaha
11. kai
12. katahi
13. korero
14. kupu
15. maha
16. marea
17. miharo
18. mihi
19. ngakaunui
20. pai
21. rangi/ra
22. reo
23. rongo
24. take
25. tika
26. tiro / titiro
27. tutaki
28. upoko / mahunga
29. wai
30. whakapakari
31. whakautu
32. whenua
33. mohio / marama / matau
34. ranei
35. rere
36. reira

Whakatauki: He uru a ki, he uru ti, e pihi ake - Even as the ti reproduces itself, so does the spoken word reappear. [Murdoch Riley, Maori Sayings & Proverbs of the Maori, 16-8]

Kia ora ra e te whanau whanuii! I have a Patreon where I hope to add some additional value. If you'd like the kaupapa, and you appreciate this mahi, you can give a koha here:

A Maori Podcast

Kia ora e te iwi! I was so fortunate to speak with my new friend Ronik and talk about his journey towards speaking te reo Maori.

Ronik has spent the last 6 years teaching himself the reo, and only recently moved to Aotearoa. Over the past 7-8 months he's been able to find himself in immersion spaces to further improve his reo, and build a community of Maori language speakers.

He shares some of his learning strategies, some nuances of te reo that he still struggles with, how he began his reo Maori journey, and some benchmarks he's done to measure his progress.

I was so impressed with his enthusiasm to speak te reo, and how he uses it as often as possible with as many people as possible -- even with strangers that don't know a single word of Maori, he'll still greet them in te reo.

You can find him here on instagram, promoting te reo Maori, and documenting his own progress.

https://www.instagram.com/reowithronzie/

Kia kaha te reo Maori!

Tukuna ki te ao!

Aheiha!

Kia ora ra e te iwi! I have a Patreon where I hope to add some additional value. If you'd like the kaupapa, and you appreciate this mahi, you can give a koha here:

A Maori Podcast

Whakatauki: Kei Hawaiki noa atu ahau e noho atu - I am sitting away off at Hawaiki. (Said by a person to indicate they are far away in thought. [Murdoch Riley, Maori Sayings and Proverbs, 1-17]

Vocab:

Mataahi - food prepared on a spit. [https://www.dictionary.maori.nz/mataahi]

Matainaina - Desire: Taku matainaina atu ki te mea a te tangata ra. - My desire is towards the thing within that person's possesion. [https://www.dictionary.maori.nz/matainaina]

Idioms:

He aha te aha - Waste of time / Nothing came of it. [https://maoridictionary.co.nz/word/1013]

Hei aha atu - Forget about it / Don't worry about it. [https://maoridictionary.co.nz/word/1024]

Ko tāua tāua - Likewise / You and me both. [https://maoridictionary.co.nz/word/3116]

Hangareka ana - What a crack up! [https://maoridictionary.co.nz/word/48206]

Kua puta a Pito - I'm stuffed / I'm full [https://maoridictionary.co.nz/word/11059]

Kia ora ra e te iwi! I have a Patreon where I hope to add some additional value. If you'd like the kaupapa, and you appreciate this mahi, you can give a koha here:

A Maori Podcast

Kia ora ra e te iwi! I have a Patreon where I hope to add some additional value. If you'd like the kaupapa, and you appreciate this mahi, you can give a koha here:

A Maori Podcast

Kia ora ki a koutou!

I thought I'd briefly touch on clauses of reason. I source my material this week from Ray Harlows A Maori Reference Grammar.

Whakatauki - To mahi o te tane paraeroa - the work of a warrior

[Maori Sayings and Proverbs, Murdoch Riley, 79-8]

Kupu/Kianga - Koi rarua ai koe! - With koi, indicating a narrow escape. [Te Wiremu, pg. 5]

Wetenga Reo: [A Maori Reference Grammar, Ray Harlow, pg. 223]

"Ka nui nga mihi ki a koe mōu i haere mai ki te tautoko i tenei mahi."

This sentence contains two clause: one expressing appreciation to the hearer, Ka nui nga mihi ki a koe, and the other giving the reason for this appreciation, mōu i haere mai ki te tautoko i tēnei mahi. This second clause, the clause of reason is constructed as described - its subject 'you' is placed first, introduced by the preposition mō.

Te Ngata example: "Ko a mātau mihi ki te komiti marae mo a rātau āwhina." [Te Ngata, search-term: "thanks"]

Kia ora ra e te iwi! I have a Patreon where I hope to add some additional value. If you'd like the kaupapa, and you appreciate this mahi, you can give a koha here:

A Maori Podcast

Kia ora!

It's Maori language month! I think it's a good time of the year to dive into some old korero that existed prior to the arrival of tauiwi. These korero were collected and compiled by John White.

I think it's also good practice to keep in mind that most (if not all) writings compiled by tauiwi have likely been curated and edited to push a certain narrative.

Heoi ra, today's korero will be about the Wharekura, and what would happen in a traditional wharekura (per this book.)

Each iwi had there own style, today's reading is about the Kai Tahu wharekura.

If you want to learn more, go directly to Kai Tahu iwi, they are the experts on their own iwi, tikanga, whakapapa and history.

English version

https://archive.org/details/ancienthistoryof01whit/page/n31/mode/1up

Maori version

https://archive.org/details/ancienthistoryof01whit/page/4/mode/1up

Kia ora ra e te iwi! I have a Patreon where I hope to add some additional value. If you'd like the kaupapa, and you appreciate this mahi, you can give a koha here:

A Maori Podcast

Kia ora e hoa ma! I wanted to look at relative clauses as I still need to work on gaining a better understanding of them and how they work. Hopefully what I share today is somewhat help. Explaining technical terms is always difficult but it's a good way to improve my speaking ability.

Whakatauki - Haere i muri o te tira parāoa. [Maori Sayings and Proverbs, Murdoch Riley, 26-10]

Wetenga reo: [Ray Harlow, A Maori Reference Grammar, pg. 241]

"Recall that there are some types of predicate in Maori which contain a noun. In particular, nouns occur in the predicate phrases of ownership and location. When such a clause is used as a relative clause, and the position within it to which the head is related is the place name or personal name in the predicate phrase, then a pronoun is used to stand for a person, and the word reira 'there, the previously mentioned place' for a place."

I a ia e moe ana, ka hoki mai nga pea no ratou te whare. - While she was sleeping, the bears whose house it was returned.

Ko wai te iwi nona te whenua? - Who is the tribe to whom the land belongs?

E pai ai te whakaako i te reo, me whakatu ko nga tangata kei a ratou te reo hei kaiako. - To improve the teaching of the language, it is people who have the language who should be appointed as teachers.

Kaore ia i mohio me pewhea e tae atu ai ki te marae kei reira te hui. - He didnt know how to get to the marae where the meeting was.

*Māhauhau - temporary shelter / hostel. (I said the wrong word in this episode. I had called it Māraurau.)

Kia ora e te iwi!

I had the privilege of speaking with my friend Kayla.

We speak on our shared interest in language acquisition, the importance of speaking and having friends to speak with regularly, her language routines, how she went about learning Spanish, and her preparation to go an entire year without speaking English. Kayla also shares her love of Te Reo Maori by helping others learn our treasured language.

https://www.reowithkayla.com/

Ko te reo kia rere!

Mauri ora!

Kia ora ra e te iwi! I have a Patreon where I hope to add some additional value. If you'd like the kaupapa, and you appreciate this mahi, you can give a koha here:

A Maori Podcast

Kia ora ra e hoa ma! I've come across these structure before but it still hasn't quite set in for me yet. Hopefully today's episode can shed a bit more light into it's usage.

Whakatauki: Nga mahi a te mata raumati - "The occupation of mid summer." Said of the habits of one that sleeps until late morning when the sun is hot. [Murdoch Riley, Maori Sayings & Proverbs, 54 - 2]

Wetenga reo:

No to ratou taenga atu ki marae, ka kite ratou kua timata ke hui. - When they arrived at the marae, they saw that the meeting had already begun. [Ray Harlow, A Maori Reference Grammar, pg. 216]

[Ray Harlow, A Maori Reference Grammar, pg. 217]

A, no ka hukea te hangi, he hawareware kau ano. - Then, when the oven was opened, there was nothing but skin and bones. (Orbell 1992:13)

No ratou ka rongo, ka werowero i roto i o ratou ngakau - When they heard (this), they were cut to the heart. (Acts 2:37)

Nona ka rongo - When s/he heard.

Kia ora ra e te iwi! I have a Patreon where I hope to add some additional value. If you'd like the kaupapa, and you appreciate this mahi, you can give a koha here:

A Maori Podcast

Whakatauki: Erangi te iti i te kore rawa - Little is better than nothing at all. [Murdoch Riley, Maori Sayings and Proverbs, 36-5]

Kia ora e te iwi! I came across an old recording of myself when I first started on my journey to improving my reo. Such a stark difference in the sound of my speech. I'm happy and proud with the progress I am making.

The main things I've done is, read Te Wiremu, listen to old recordings, speak aloud anything I read, and do this podcast (this rapidly improved my speech, you can probably here the difference between the earlier episodes, and this one.)

I also answer the question of imitation, and mimicry, as I've been asked in the past if I'm from the North, or from the Coast because the way I speak.

Ultimately, you sound like what you are exposed to right? I've spent hours and hours listening to old recording of tupuna from different iwi, and it so happens that these tupuna are from those areas.

I relate this experience to my generation's kids. My little cousins have an American sound now to their speech because of their constant exposure to Youtube, Cinema, basically the entire entertainment industry is dominated by American media.

I hope you find this episode insightful.

Kia kaha te reo!