Every year since 1975 New Zealand has marked Maori Language Week - Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori. This is a time to celebrate te reo Maori (the Maori language) and to use more Maori phrases in everyday life. In 2008 Maori Language Week will be 21-27 July, the theme is 'te reo i te kainga – Maori language in the home'.
100 Maori words for everyday usage. We have included individual sound files of spoken versions of all these words – just click on the word and it will be spoken!
Maori women have been the backbone of kohanga reo (language 'nurseries' where pre-schoolers were immersed in the language) since the first opened in 1982. By July 2000 there were a total of 11,519 children attending 611 kohanga reo.
Piripi Walker (right) and Tama Te Huki in the studio of the Wellington Maori language radio station, Te Upoko o Te Ika, on its first day of broadcast in 1987.
Waitangi Tribunal members Chief Judge Edward Durie (left) and Paul Temm QC visit a kohanga reo at Waiwhetu, Lower Hutt, in 1985. Kohanga reo or language 'nurseries' immersed infants in a Maori language environment; the first of these opened in 1982.
Missionary Thomas Kendall is painted with Waikato and Hongi Hika in London in 1820. In 1815 Kendall wrote the first book to be published in the Maori language.
