METRONEWS
© New Zealand Broadcasting School 2024

Kia Kaha te reo Māori

Oliver Cowan
Louise Ternouth
Emma Turton
maori design board
Maori science needs investment   Duncan Weich

Beginning Monday is a week for all Kiwis to celebrate te reo Māori and encourages the use of Māori phrases in everyday life.

The theme for this year's Māori language week, beginning Monday, is "Kia Kaha te reo Māori - Make the Māori language strong."

Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta has given te reo speakers a month-long challenge: Mahuru Māori.

Mahuru Māori started out as a social experiment in 2014, the challenge is for Māori Speakers to only speak Māori for the entire month of September.

Vodafone is partnering with the Māori Language Commission to help strengthen the use of te reo in the workplace.

The telecommunications company is launching a new educational app for staff called Hika to help them incorporate te reo into their work and everyday life.

Vodafone diversity spokesperson Kirsten Te Wao said Hika was part of the company's goal to ensure it was "authentically engaging with Māori".

Te Wao said Vodafone was starting with correcting their staff's pronunciation.

"The first place really, is helping our people to be able to pronounce Te Reo Māori appropriately."

She said the company would look at opening up the app and strategy to customers in the near future.