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Dame Tariana Turia on Paakiwaha
Dame Tariana talks with Willie Jackson after being a guest on TV 3 current affairs show The Hui, where the question was posed; Are you less Maori if you can't speak te reo
Dame Tariana says of course we would all love to have Maori language expertise and i'm sure my hapu back home would have been absolutely delighted if our parents and grandparents would have been left in tact with their reo but they weren't, and as a result, not one of us of my generation have our reo and I am not going to run around apologising to any of these guru's who have the reo. They're lucky and I'm really proud of the reo, I'm proud of those who carry the reo.
She says she has always dismissed people who told her she’s not a real Maori because she doesn’t speak te reo.
Dame Tariana says it’s her whakapapa that defines her as Maori, not her reo.
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