waitiwaita - Tumblr blog

[waitiwaita]

you can choose which challenge to do each day based on your own ability, or even make some of these harder if you would like!

would love to hear any feedback, even just reblogging and putting in the tags of posts how you went with the challenge

aside from this, every little bit you do to reclaim te reo Māori helps! the theme for this year is ake ake ake, a forever language, and that is all we are really looking for, is to strengthen the hold this language has on the people of Aotearoa, and give it then holding power it needs to endure for as long as any other language, despite attempts to get rid of it

[waitiwaita]

Kua rongo koe i waiata tēnei? Ka rawe ia!

[waitiwaita]

Kei te matakitaki au i Whakaata Māori. I waiata a kōtiro a "This is Me." Miharo! I waiata ataahua ia.

[waitiwaita]

I'll probably make this a more formal post with actual links at some point BUT- if you're trying to learn Te Reo and can't get classes for whatever reason, Whakaaata Maori is a really good place to start.

They have shows for multiple age groups, young kids/teens/adults, all in maori, as well as reo education shows for varying degrees of fluency.

For beginners, I would recommend Opaki ("informal"). It mostly focuses on basic sentence structure and vocabulary. There are multiple children's shows that teach new words as well, but those are more entertainment than anything and do require a modicum of reo proficiency imo.

Toku Reo ("my language") is another show for absolute beginners, which is hosted partially in English. It's a little more formal than Opaki, and has activities and example skits for the word or sentence structure you might be learning that week.

There are also websites with free online language courses, though I'm unsure of which to recommend as I've never used them. These shows and more are available online on the Whakaata Maori website.

[waitiwaita]

Rerenga kupu o te rā: haea anō tō kari.

Kei te kino i tāku kari ki te pae utu!!!

[waitiwaita]

At my te reo class today, we learned a new karakia. This one was created by Scotty Morrison (of Māori Made Easy fame), and is presented as a 'culturally safe' karakia. It doesn't refer to specific divinities or beliefs. Kai Tahu posted it on their YouTube channel- here it is!

[waitiwaita]

Alex: He tino makariri tēnei rangi, nē hā?

Aleksa: Ae

[waitiwaita]

He aha ngā ringapuoro me waiata rawe ki ahau?

Alien Weaponry

Ahi ka

Kai Tangata

Tangaroa

Drax Project

I Moeroa

Maisey Rika

Matariki i te po

Ruaimoko (ataata ataahua!)

Waiti Waita

Modern Māori Quartet

Māreikura

Rob Ruha

I te po

Wakakura

Whakaari

[waitiwaita]

Te Reo Māori vocab list part 2

part 1 here

🖤❤️🤍🖤❤️🤍

Arohanui - much love (commonly used to sign off letters/messages)

Hoki whenua mai - the concept of land back “as land was taken then land should be given back”

Kaitiakitanga - the Māori concept of guardianship and protection, for the sky, the sea, and the land

Mana Motuhake - self determination (the concept of mana motuhake is often seen in indigenous rights movements and has a long political history in AO/NZ)

Mānawatia - to honour, acknowledge and welcome, most commonly in the phrase “Mānawatia a Matariki” which welcomes the Māori new year

Papatūānuku - the land, the earth mother

Rangatahi - young people / the younger generation

Taonga - something that is treasured (although it’s translated as treasure in English, not usually of economic value rather something treasured like culture or natural resources)

Taiao - the natural environment

Te Ao Māori - the Māori world (encompasses culture, values, language, spirituality etc)

Wairua - soul/spirit, literally meaning two waters, sometimes used in exchange for mental health/wellbeing (eg. spending time in taiao can have a positive effect on your wairua)

[waitiwaita]

A whakataukī (proverb) in te reo Māori: Whāia te mātauranga hei oranga mō koutou. Seek knowledge for your well-being.

[waitiwaita]

One of the cool things about te reo Māori is that you can have a complete sentence with no verb in it. In English, Izzy has to say "a shark did this" or "it was a shark". But it te reo he can just use "nā" to indicate who/what did something.

It fascinates the hell out of me that "nā" (and mā for future action) is also used for ownership. "Nā tētahi mangō" also means that something belongs to a shark, or a shark owns it. I think this ties into how the nā/mā structure emphasizes who/what did the thing, rather than the action itself. So the shark (or whoever) owns the action, it is responsible for it.

Mangō is the general term for sharks if you're not specifying a species. The term for great white shark is "mangō taniwha". I thought about using that (since taniwha is a possible translation for the Kraken), but it seemed to be calling a bit too much attention to the metaphor of Ed as the shark, and I'm not sure if Izzy is even aware that he's creating an allegory.