#Te Reo

[unwhitewashthebadbatch]

Filming on a television series, believed to be the first mainstream prime-time production to have 30 percent of its dialogue in te reo Māori, has just wrapped in Taranaki.

The Warner Brothers Discovery-backed drama Tangata Pai is being made in partnership with Te Atiawa iwi and Ngāti Te Whiti hapū.

It tells the story of five people whose worlds collide when a bomb is detonated at a peaceful Māori protest against a licence to mine a sacred site.

Writer-director Kiel McNaughton, who has whakapapa to Taranaki iwi and Parihaka, said the show had parallels with past struggles and contemporary issues such as seabed mining.

"In terms of Māori needing to stand up. Stand up for their rights, stand up for their land, stand up for what we believe in.

"And we are having to do that now and we were having to do that 140 years ago, so for me it's about looking at what's changed. Has anything changed?"

McNaughton, who is still on his reo journey, said it was important to normalise the use of the language.

"What's exciting about this is that it is being embraced by a broader network which has a much larger audience.

"And being able to get this 30 percent reo content, which shouldn't be intimidating for a non-Māori speaking audience, so for us to have that on Three and for Warner Brothers Discovery to support this is really exciting."

Former journalist Mereana Hond, who is from Taranaki and Ngāti Ruanui iwi, is overseeing the use of te reo and tikanga.

She said Tangata Pai would include subtitles to make it accessible to as many people as possible.

"The fact that it is 30 percent te reo Māori is what sold it to iwi that have chosen to be a part of this.

"This is a collaboration, it is a partnership, there is a memorandum of agreement between iwi and the producers to create something which tells our stories in a different way."

Theres heaps of background talent here in Ngāmotu, so that's been terrific to engage the local community and have them come and be a part of the series and the filming.

"And then we have lots of crew that we've brought from different parts of the country. The majority I would say from Auckland."

Warkia - who has Scottish and Papua New Guinea heritage - agreed with Hond that one of Tangata Pai's strengths was its illustration of how disputes could be dealt with.

"The idea of maungaarongo which is very much about creating space for people to speak even if they have very different opinions.

"Creating a space where they can specifically discuss all of those differences, and that is healthy and important and shouldn't be avoided."

Filming of Tangata Pai, which has Te Māngai Pāho and NZ On Air funding, has now moved to Auckland.

It will screen on Three and Three Now next year.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Histories of colonisation ought to be remembered, including the horrors and atrocities, but also the endurance and empowerment found in trenchant resistance and the fight for sovereignty, writes Radhika Reddy.

India and Aotearoa are both grappling with decolonisation. In this ongoing struggle to wrest free from the legacies of colonialism, each society can learn from the other.

A recent piece published by The Spinoff uncovered some of these lessons, but in my view gave a rather disempowering view of both Māori and Indian experiences. It emphasised tragedy, brutality and suffering, but overlooked trenchant resistance efforts seeking sovereignty, where we might find the most useful stories to exchange.

Common ground

The previous article began with common ground, but only focused on Māori and Hindu ecological values, so let’s broaden the picture with some Indian traditions beyond Hinduism, and decolonising Māori values.

Papatūānuku and Kaitiakitanga: Khalifa, Amana (from Islam)

An “ethos of living in harmony in nature” is found in Islam, India’s second-largest religion. The Quranic approach is based on Khalifa and Amana (trusteeship of nature) in which humans have guardianship over nature, to appreciate and care for it, pass it unspoiled to future generations, and manage sustainably.

Manaakitanga: Seva (from Sikhism)

A spirit of hospitality pointedly appears in the centuries-old Sikh tradition of Guru Ka Langar (communal meal), an act of Seva (selfless service). Langar serves food freely and equally to all-comers, regardless of religion, caste, wealth, gender or age, overcoming divisions exploited by colonialism.

Tino rangatiratanga: Swaraj (from secularism)

Māori notions of self-government and Gandhi’s credo of Swaraj (self-rule) share an essence of seeking self-determination, with social structures and values separate from colonial interference.

Besides principles, there are common experiences and episodes of resistance shared in history:

Parihaka

The events of Parihaka came long before India’s independence movement gained momentum, but the spirit of non-violent resistance echoes across centuries, possibly having influenced Gandhi.

Redcoats

British regiments frequently rotated through India and New Zealand. Waves of veterans, after plundering India or suppressing its rebellions, came to fight the New Zealand Wars, or left to police India. British statues as well as town, street and suburb names across Aotearoa are familiar to students of Indian history — Empress Victoria, Governor-General Auckland, Colonel then Commander-in-Chief Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington), and places like Bombay or Khyber Pass. These are connected histories.

Lessons India has to offer for Māori

Among decolonisation projects, India’s imperfect story of independence still has interesting lessons.

Non-violent resistance works

Māori have led non-violent resistance in Aotearoa for generations, from Parihaka to Ihumātao, and may find the example of India’s liberation a hopeful landmark victory in global history.

The practice of Indian non-violent resistance continues to this day, as protests rage against likely unconstitutional policies such as the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens, with assemblies, marches, sit-ins, and art, despite state violence.

Coexistence

Although India ejected British occupation and suffers internal divisions, there is still a firm thread running through the ages demonstrating coexistence between different cultures.

Look to chapters in history like the peaceful inclusion of Muslims in South India since the seventh century, the religious tolerance of Akbar in the 16th century, the joint Hindu-Muslim Indian Rebellion of 1857, and the secular Indian constitution. They contrast with divisive ideologies like Hindutva founder V.D Savarkar’s two-nation theory that promoted a dominant Hindu nation. The daily lives of many Indians today embody inter-cultural acceptance, the norm across much of the country, most of the time.

Whereas Aotearoa may not return its settler society for a full refund, multicultural coexistence is possible.

Overcoming divide-and-rule

Whether it was the East India Companies or the British Raj, a small minority of power brokers ran the show — infamously, 35 staff in an East India Company office. They relied on divide-and-rule, recruiting vast numbers of Indian foot soldiers (Sepoys) to do the hard work. But a highly-leveraged organisational arrangement is weak to united resistance (like Kotahitanga). Today it appears in gig economies or the criminal justice industry, which pit marginalised people against each other.

Self-government is not always good government

Today’s India shows how things can get wobbly even 70 years after independence, as a homegrown blood-and-soil movement undermines equality and reproduces colonial hierarchies atop a diverse society.

Take the word “decolonisation”. It probably looks straightforward, but it is a co-opted term in India. In the name of decolonisation, the Hindutva movement promotes discriminatory reforms, such as ending affirmative action for lower-caste people, and passing the exclusionary Citizenship Amendment Act.

There are regions under Indian rule seeking greater autonomy or Azaadi (freedom) today – resisting occupation by a central Indian state, as Assam endures detention centres, and Kashmir a militarised siege.

It takes eternal vigilance to protect hard-won sovereignty from sabotage.

What India can learn from Māori

Colonialism is now

It is tempting to think colonialism must belong only to museums and history books. But settler-colonial societies still persist. In Aotearoa, settlers may have settled but the nation remains unsettled. As Treaty negotiations, claims and protests unfold, Indians can reflect on how the colonial legacy is fed by continuous re-colonisation – a risk India is prone to, not from Britain, but from, say, supremacists within.

Indians in Aotearoa can also respond by allying with Māori in decolonisation efforts.

Overcoming casteism and anti-indigeneity

While there is no comparing two complex societies, there are still parallels between the institutional discrimination that Māori have endured, and the discrimination against Dalit, Other Backward Class, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Adivasi (indigenous) people. As Indians in Aotearoa can find solidarity with Māori in undoing colonial oppression, so too can India find equality for its systematically disadvantaged classes.

Protecting taonga like language

While India is blessed with a diversity of cultures, a tendency to homogenise society with one language and identity sometimes rears its head. Whether under well-meaning secularism, or Hindutva rule, language imposition threatens diversity. South Indian languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada are spoken by large minorities but are often in tension with a Hindi regime pushed by central governments. The experience of Te Reo Māori shows the value in preserving languages, and the perils of erasure.

Common struggles

Supremacism

Whether it is white supremacy or Hindu supremacy (sharing traits like Islamophobia), countering dangerous ideologies is vital to fulfill the egalitarian promise of the constitutions of both Aotearoa and India.

Climate change

A global challenge like climate change demands a variety of solutions, but most importantly by centering indigenous people in decision-making — something Aotearoa has yet to fully embrace. For all the “harmony with nature” embedded in dominant Indian cultures such as Hinduism, the ruling BJP government has much to answer for when it comes to emissions, environmental degradation and deregulation.

Feminism, LGBT and disability equality

Achieving equality for women, non-binary, LGBT and disabled people in India and Aotearoa is an ongoing struggle. Threats like sexual abuse, domestic violence, inadequate healthcare, colourism, repressive gender roles, limited autonomy, inaccessiblity, and economic inequality, are common concerns.

Patriarchal British norms echo in Indian laws, as with Section 377 that criminalised homosexuality until recently. Despite decriminalisation in 2018, there is not yet recognition of same-sex or gender-diverse marriage, protection against discrimination, or adequate healthcare. Trans Indians are targeted by the new Transgender Persons Act which sanctions second-class treatment — for instance, it provides for lower sentences in cases of violent crimes against trans women. The new Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens especially threaten women, non-binary, LGBT and disabled people.

In Aotearoa, amendments to laws like the Birth, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill, letting trans people more easily update birth certificates, still face transphobic opposition. Abortion decriminalisation remains under consideration. Māori may be worst affected by settler-colonial sexism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism.

These are signs that our societies have a long way to go, to enact systemic reforms, and to lift the veil of everyday shame and silence surrounding marginalised lives in our cultures.

Remembering

Histories of colonisation ought to be remembered, including the horrors and atrocities, but also the endurance and empowerment found in resistance. The previous Spinoff article proposed a museum dedicated to New Zealand colonisation, and praised changes to the curriculum teaching New Zealand history in all schools.

Both of these are laudable goals, but must be conducted with care to avoid the kind of revisionism seen in India under Hindutva rule. Any museum of New Zealand colonisation should seek to share with all New Zealanders the narratives Māori have learned and developed, to centre Māori self-determination and agency, and to emphasise coexistence under a Treaty framework that respects Tino Rangatiratanga.

[ourdreamsareneon]

I think it's weird that as a culture we just stole the word mana from the Māori/Polynesian language(s) to use in video games because it's kinda magic in a way if you understand nothing about the culture youre taking from and white dudes from Ohio still debate the pronunciation like it isn't a real word.

MAH-nah.

The Māori vowels are

A = ah (as in are)

E = eh (as in there)

I = ee (as in three)

O = aw (as in or)

U = oo (as in two)

You will often see a macron (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū) which just denotes that it's a long vowel sound instead of a short one.

The constinants are fairly easy, there are just a few things to keep in mind like "wh" is a "f" sound similar to the "ph" in "phone" and that "nga" makes a "nah" sound similar to the "nah" in "yeah, nah...yeah."

Additionally, te reo Māori is a very nasal heavy language and uses soft rolled R's more along the lines of French rather than Spanish if that helps.

Te reo Māori was once an exclusively oral language. It wasn't until the Dutch, French, American, and English "settlers" arrived in the 19th century that white people tried to write it down. It is also an endangered language that we need to work to keep alive, especially when the New Zealand government is actively trying to destroy it.

You Americans and Europeans wrote this language down. The least you could do is learn to read it.

[botherkupo]

Just found out “autism” in te reo Māori is Takiwātanga, which means in his/her/their own time and space. I love that

[teepeecider]

It’s Māori language week in Aotearoa and The Oxford English Dictionary has just added quite a few Māori words that have crossed over in to common Pākehā usage. One is bc mahi - used in Māori contexts to mean work, activity, occupation, or employment". So I have been doing the mahi waterblasting the cidery yard. #Māori #TeReo #OED

[mucking-faori]

Pronouncing "Aotearoa" (plus some interesting notes on Maori pronunciation)

Was asked for a lil guide on pronouncing this so thought I'd chip in.

Usually, we start learning meaning and pronunciation in Maori by breaking down the word or name into its roots. In this case:

Aotearoa -> Ao-tea-Roa

Ao means cloud, tea means white or fair, and Roa means long. So we get the meaning of the name- Long white cloud. Some say this name came from Kupe finding the land by following such a cloud, others say his wife named the new country because it looked like a long white cloud.

But how do I say it?

Great question! A few simple maori notes first:

Our vowels in Maori are a lot like English. But we pronounce them differently.

A as in "ah-choo!"

E as in "egg"

I as in the ee in "eel"

O as in "oar"

and U as in the oo in "poo".

As for consonants, we have far fewer. Only H,K,M,N,P,R,T,W,Ng and Wh. (Wh makes an f sound and Ng is as in bang. They are considered their own letters.)

R is always rolled, with no exceptions (this is usually hard for English speakers to do at first)

When you do the maori alphabet, you just pronounce the letters as they're said. So for "wh" I would just make the "ff" Sound.

Lastly, we have some interesting rules for T.

In English, you use a "sharp T". You're hissing, almost, on it, by putting your tongue through your teeth. In maori, you only use a "sharp T" for ti- and tu- sounds. For others, you "deaden" your tongue by letting it hit against the roof of your mouth instead of between your teeth, so the T comes out a little like a d. So we would almost sound like we're saying "Da, De, Ti, Do, Tu".

But! Back on topic-

When we break the name into syllables and use our pronunciation tools, it's fairly easy to figure out.

Ao-te-a-ro-a.

Ao as in "l-OU-d".

Te as in "TE-d" (remember, "dead" t)

A as in " AH-choo"

Ro as in "RA-w" (remember, rolled R)

A (same as before)

Aotearoa = Ou-te-ah-raw-ah

[mokonui]

Kupu o te Rā:

reka - tasty, sweet, juicy, yummy

He tino reka te mīti! (The meat is yummy!)

This is an example of a classifying sentence.

See also:

[ranahan]

Another saying from the people of the far north is the phrase ‘koutou kua whetūrangitia’ — addressed in the second-person plural to the once-living ancestors, ‘you who have become stars’.

Georgina Stewart: Māori Philosophy—Indigenous Thinking from Aotearoa

[affableanthropologist]

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]

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

[pohutukawa22]

The thing about Spanish is that every country has different, slang and different words for the same things. Great example of this is the word straw. You ask a group of people from different countries what they call a straw and you’re going to start a war. so, even in Spanish, there can be a miscommunication because in your country, this word means something completely different. So yes, there are words that Chris has probably heard the other member say and it’s become a part of his vocabulary. Even with that being said, it doesn’t make it OK for him to use it. It’s different if you were born in one country and then you grew up in another country because then that was always a part of your vocabulary, and the way you were raised. The problem is when you start to say stuff to appeal to a certain demographic. Say in New Zealand, there’s a term you call people or something right if an American started using that even if they were around those people you wouldn’t like that and you’d say you can’t do that it’s kind of the same thing for Spanish.



"Say in New Zealand, there’s a term you call people or something right if an American started using that even if they were around those people you wouldn’t like that and you’d say you can’t do that it’s kind of the same thing for Spanish."

Yes, I can think of examples of that.

But NZ was at quite an unusual point where a lot of us use Te Reo words (Māori language) in convo even though we don't speak the language. Some of the words just feel natural to us now. It has been encouraged as part of getting more people to speak or at least accept Te Reo.

I say was because we have just had a change of government. 😒 But I don't want to talk too much about that cause Tumblr is my happy place.

I'm here for CNCO & the kittens!

[yellowgnomeboots]

I don't drive so I didn't know this till now, but the names on the pumps for the petrol and diesel are in both te reo Māori and English.

[miasimia]

Can substitute Celtic Languages for Te Reo (and probably more tbf) and this would still be accurate

I’m so fucking tired

[affableanthropologist]

I've always said I wouldn't take a formal te reo course because it's important those positions remain open for tāngata whenua. However, I found out about a free te reo course through Literacy Aotearoa that has places left, and starts tomorrow. With it starting so soon, I decided to reach out because if it starts tomorrow and there are still places, there looks to be more places in the course than there is interest for it.

Anyway yeah: I'm in!

I'm so excited. I'll be able to meet new people to learn with and get some formal instruction. I've been struggling with learning on my own this last little bit, so this will be so helpful for me.

[teepeecider]

A lovely surprise today at the cidery for the both of us. I was working in our new enclosed apple processing area when I spotted a welcome swallow. The first of the season. Not sure how it got in but was happy to be let out! It was probably born in a nest under this very roof last year.

Warou or welcome swallows are a new addition to New Zealand’s native fauna, self introduced from Australia. Known only as occasional vagrants before the 1950s, they were first noticed breeding near Kaitāia, Northland, in 1958. Since then they have spread throughout the motu and found on the Chatham and Kermadec islands.

In winter they flock together and southwards to Otago and Southland. #cidery #cider #swallow #ornithology #TeReo #Māori #NewZealand #Aotearoa

[djkiwi]

Die Nachtigallensteuer

Auf einer Neuseelandreise lernte mein Großvater das Wort ‘whānau’, was so viel wie Großfamilie bedeutet. Seitdem schickt er historische Hochglanzbroschüren, die er mit alten Schulfreunden produziert, und nennt das, seine ‘Whānau-Briefe’. In diesen Geschichtsessays zitiert er auch historische Quellen. Ein Essay handelt von Hochzeitsbräuchen. Da heißt es: In einem mittelalterlichen Zuchtbrief von…