It's Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, and Ash London's first one living here in Aotearoa. As someone who has been here for less than a year, Ash wanted to share how much it has meant to her to start learning some Te Reo and embracing te ao Māori.
Ash’s dad was an immigrant from Lebanon, and she's lived all over the world, never expecting to one day call New Zealand home. Before moving here, Ash said the closest she'd come to te reo Māori was through music.
“I remember listening to Six60’s 'Don’t Forget Your Roots', then stumbling on the reo Māori version one day. Driving along, I got goosebumps," she said.
"There’s something inherently powerful and magical about the language.”
Since moving here, Ash has been struck by how much her family is surrounded by te ao Māori in everyday life. Her son, Buddy, has picked up a bunch of kupu (words) at kindy and started teaching the family.
“Family cuddles became whānau cuddles," she said. "When I'd make dinner, he'd be like ‘Ka pai, Mama!’ Sometimes, if I was really lucky, I’d even get a pakipaki.”
“When you live amongst something, you can forget how unique it is," Ash continued. "As a foreigner, I just wanna like thank all people just for helping me out.“
And that’s the takeaway this Māori Language Week: It’s way better to try and get it wrong than not to try at all. No matter how long you’ve lived here, there’s always something new to learn in te reo Māori.
