'The aroha in this room': Learning te reo Māori through waiata creates connection

The useful part

Learning te reo Māori through waiata creates connection Layla Bailey-McDowell Caption: Most are Pākehā, tauiwi, or Māori reconnecting with their whakapapa, all learning the language and culture of the country they call home. "For a long time I've just always felt very fortunate to live where I live.

How it works

• "These community connections at this community level are showing me something else.
• "And I really want other people to see how beautiful they are.
• RNZ / Layla Bailey-McDowell The akomanga is taught by New Zealand-born Chinese Eda Tang, who learnt te reo Māori through Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

What to take from it

Because it could have just been something that I kept to myself and felt too whakamā to share. Because, you know, politically of late, it's pretty decimating." But she said the connections being made at a community level gave her reason to be hopeful. Kāinga Ora decision to sell off Wellington housing blocks disappoints locals © RNZ, original at https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9._g.pKhUMkRnoOZwX4iq2fhLAqba5Rz0jb3mINKRqASmxf0/te-ao-maori/1380529%2Fthe-aroha-in-this-room-learning-te-reo-maori-through-waiata-creates-connection

Example or evidence

• "The everlasting reason has been to connect to the place where I've grown up and lived and breathed.
• "That is the purpose that keeps me going." Learning te reo has also given her a deeper understanding of her own place in Aotearoa.
• "My Chinese ancestors came here with English language laws that were designed to prohibit their entry to Aotearoa.
• She said that had given her a particular connection to the revitalisation of te reo Māori.

Details worth keeping

There's so many parts of it that I think are really, really beautiful. learning te reo Māori is an honouring of the people who, after the signing of Te Tiriti, had their mana over immigration laws in this country undermined." Tang is passionate about language revitalisation, having also experienced the loss of her own ancestral language. "I grew up with Cantonese as my first language, but it is a language that is slowly becoming less and less spoken as language laws have changed in China.

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