Above: From the sublime to the ridiculous. Cupcakes in the foreground, chips and tomato sauce at the top of the table.

Over the past 50 years, Te Wiki o te Reo Māori has grown in stature. We joined the movement this year with colleagues in our shared space.

Clark Bardsley Design, Clearhead, Aotearoa Art Fair and Marque developed a programme, we use the word loosely, of activities for the week. They were largely the basics. Using everyday phrases, adding new words to our vocabulary and stringing a few words together, all with a bit of help from Reo Māori

Above: Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi had never sounded quite like this.

Then at the end of the week, we staged an event and tried to create a marae-like setting which included pepeha, hongi, waiata, and karakia and sharing kai. It was the best part of the week. Not only because of the kai, which was delicious, but the sense of community that we created. We’ve all agreed that we want Te Wiki o te Reo Māori to be bigger and better, which will involve engaging with other businesses in our building.

And outside of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori a few of us have been undertaking some extra-curricular activities.

One of us has just completed a community te Reo class. Another has learnt a waiata taught by his seven-year-old daughter. And our resident Koro has leafed through Kuri & Friends Māori Picture Dictionary with his six and three-year-old grandchildren too many times to remember.

Our challenge now is to keep building our knowledge. There is no shortage of opportunities, whether watching Pio Terei on his weekly entertainment talk show on Māori Television, taking up one of many online learning opportunities or attending a show or a movie – Whina comes to mind.

Hei konā mai