Te Kairangi o te Reo Māori, Hoki Mai

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā hau e whā, e ngā waka, e ngā kārangarangatanga maha o te motu, tēnā koutou! Tēnā koutou! Tēnā koutou katoa!

My name is Areta Pakinga and I hail from the lands of Te Arawa, where our people are known as Te Arawa Mangai Nui (Te Arawa of loud voice). Our people are orators, storytellers, and generally dominate the manner in which we direct kōrero. Therefore, the production of Te Ao Mārama falls perfectly into my kete, squished in between language revitalisation and vodka sodas. 

It is my honour to introduce this year's edition of Te Ao Mārama. 

As a tauira Māori of Te Herenga Waka, I felt it was my duty to use this year’s Te Ao Mārama to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the Te Reo Māori Petition. The theme for this year is ‘te kairangi o te reo Māori, hoki mai’: ‘bring back the excellence of te reo Māori’. Choosing this theme meant that we needed to ensure a high level of reo usage in the magazine. So, for the first time ever, Te Ao Mārama has been printed in both te reo Maori and English. 

It is important to note that Te Ao Mārama was created with the intention for every edition to be completely written in te reo Māori. From our research, this intention has never been followed through until now, making the 2022 edition of Te Ao Mārama one of a kind. Deciding to do two versions of Te Ao Mārama was an easy decision. Unlike the Treaty, both of our versions are direct translations of each other.

The general gist of Te Ao Mārama 2k22 is that the excellence and integrity of te reo Māori deserves to be highlighted in every way possible. Our language is beautiful and far more poetic than anything ol’ mate Shakespeare could ever write up. 

In this issue, you will find a timeline of significant Māori language events, discussions of Māori in tertiary and public sector environments, stories of Māori tricksters, and a pretty mean House of the Dragon review (SPOILER ALERT). This edition also houses artwork produced by our very own tauira Māori design team and many pieces written from the hearts of our tauira. 

It is possible that by the end of this week, the English versions of Te Ao Mārama will have been snatched up, and we will be left with an excess of te reo Māori versions. But hey, someone has to test the waters first. As a proud descendant of Te Arawa Māngai Nui, that person was always going to be me. 

To our readers: I hope you reflect on your own te reo journey. Critique it, change it, or even begin it. Maybe this year’s Te Ao Mārama is your start. Read both versions side by side, and take note of the differences in words and sentence structures. It’s 2022, te reo Māori has been an official language of New Zealand for 35 years now, and has existed for far longer than that. As someone who walks on this land, it’s your responsibility to learn te reo. 

Yours in Māoritanga,

Areta Pakinga