Wednesday, 1 March 2006

Taking the first step on a long journey

On Tuesday night Iain and I enrolled at Te Wananga O Aotearoa (the University of New Zealand) to start learning the Maori language. The course we are doing is called Te Ara Reo Maori (The Pathway to the Maori Language). It's an evening course, with one three-hour lesson every Tuesday night. By the end of the course, in two years' time, we should have a reasonable knowledge of the Maori language and also be familiar with some of the most important aspects of Maori culture.

Before I went along I assumed that the people on the course would all be Pakeha (New Zealanders of European descent) or immigrants (like us). I was quite shocked when I saw that over fifty percent of the students looked as if they might be of Maori descent. I'd just assumed that all Maori would speak their own language. Apparently this is far from the case. As recently as the 1980s Te Reo Maori was a dying language. It wasn't taught in schools and was only spoken by a small percentage of the Maori population. It's only in the last twenty years that Maori culture and language have made a resurgence. Te Reo Maori is now recognised as an official language of New Zealand (alongside English) and Maori language and culture are taught in schools.

Te Wananga O Aoteroa (the institution we're studying with)

Te Ara Reo Maori (the course we're doing)

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Yesterday Iain and I took some photos of Kowhai Park, a really cool children's playground which is just a five minute walk away. It's so good it almost makes us wish we had children so we could have an excuse to visit it all the time. Now that's a scary thought to have, even if only fleetingly.
Click on the link below to see a slide show.
Photos of Kowhai Park

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