April 04, 2018
Early reo radio champions recalled
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision is celebrating the broadcasters who championed te reo Maori on radio.
Its new exhibition Te Reo Papaho covers the early days of radio, when most recordings consisted of entertainment items, through the 1940s, when the first regular, fully te reo radio programmes began.
It moves on to the Maori cultural renaissance of the 1970s and the push for more Maori language programmes.
Pou arahi Honiana Love says the scope is more ambitious than the first two Nga Taonga Korero exhibitions, which focused on specific events the opening of Turongo House at Turangawaewae Marae in 1938 and the return of the Maori Battalion from World War Two in 194.
She says it provides insights into the barriers broadcasters faced as they fought to increase the use of te reo on radio.
Te Reo Papaho can be found on the website of Nga Taonga, which is New Zealand’s audiovisual archive.
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