March 24, 2020
Taura Whiri urges manaakitanga through distancing
The Māori Language Commission says the tikanga for the Covid-19 lockdown should be manaakitanga – which now means staying at home.
It also means checking in on your elders and loved ones, and buying what you need at the supermarket and leaving some for others.
Te Taura Whiri chief executive Ngahiwi Apanui says manaakitanga also means being prepared for the future, which means learning from the past.
Māori communities were decimated in the last pandemic to hit Aotearoa, the 1918 influenza pandemic, which also took the lives of one in five people in Samoa.
The commission has adopted an old proverb to fit today’s challenge:
He whare tū i te wā he kai nā te ahi; he whare tū i te pā he tohu nō te rangatira – A prepared house shows leadership. An unprepared house is a troubled house.”
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