A Maori Podcast

Kia ora e hoa ma!

One of the best things we can do to improve our reo is increasing our exposure to it. Reading is one of those things, especially if you can get your hands on some really old texts. I've found a letter from 1885 regarding William Colenso's mission to write a book, a compilation of as many Maori words as possible. You can find the text here:

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/books/ALMA1885-9919185082802836-E-hoa---Tena-ra-ko-koe--Tena-pea

You can find his book here. Unfortunately he died before he could complete it:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QfkUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

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 whanau whanui! I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with my friend Asha. I've worked with Ash for the past year in reawakening the Moriori language. She shares her experience as someone that is Maori and Moriori. She speaks of her deep desire and interest in her Maori and Moriori culture. She gives us an insight into noho wananga and reo rumaki, with hopes that one day Moriori can reach that same stage.

We discuss the nuances of Ta Re, what's involved in reawakening a language deemed "extinct", the challenges, and where to start in this type of endeavour.

Asha is an excellent example to me of what language and cultural reclamation is. Language is more than just a means of communication. It holds cultural values and significance. It can give us a sense of direction and belonging in this face-paced world. Language can help shape and change our perspective, it can create new bonds and relationships.

I'm grateful to have had this opportunity to work with Asha in reawakening ta re Moriori, and to also speak with each other in our reo Maori.

If you're interested in learning Ta Re Moriori, I also run A Moriori Podcast. It is bilingual, so it's accessible to everyone. Here are some other Moriori language resources:

https://moriori.org

https://www.moriori.co.nz/resources/

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!

Today's episode is a bit different. I wanted to share 3 things with you in regards to language learning. I try to implement these in my own life, and I've managed to improve my reo Maori skills, and become conversational in two additional languages.

1 - It's common and very normal to burn with passion and intense desire towards your language goal and then have that flame fizzles out. - Rest, leave that language alone, and come back to it later.

2 - Speaking out loud gives you the opportunity to make mistakes, and that's a good thing. Knowing the gaps in your knowledge allows you to improve.

3 - Make the language part of your identity, make it an everyday language. I've built friendships which only exist in Te Reo Maori, that is how I go about making the language part of my identity.

Whakatauki: He tohe puruhi - a persistent flea.

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

Kioranga!

This week is Moriori Language week and I had the amazing opportunity to chat with one of the whanaunga, Kiwa Hammond, a leader in the Moriori Language, Culture, and Identity Revitalisation & Repatriations space.

I was so excited, and so fortunate to have Kiwa sit down with me and share his journey. It was his youtube seminar that really helped to kick start my own Ta Re Moriori journey.

We speak about what it was like growing up as Maori & Moriori, how learning te reo Maori lead him into delving deeper into his Moriori side. He shares some of his insights into speaking Ta Re, some of the nuances of the Re, some advice towards speaking it, some of his compositions, his love for karakii and tikane and the pursuit for modern day application such as his efforts to assist in Moriori repatriations.

If you are interested learning Ta Re Moriori, I've also started another podcast. This one's bilingual, so it's accessible to everyone. I've started it for the same purpose I started this podcast -- to improve my speaking proficiency. Anyways you can check it out here:

https://amorioripodcast.yb.fm

Me rongo,

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!

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