January 30, 2024
T-shirts flood land with language
A Ngāti Kahungunu rangatahi is using te reo Māori to fight back against coalition Government attacks on kaupapa Māori.
Amaia Watson, a second year law student at the University of Otago, says she was inspired by the words of scholar Tā Timoti Karetu.
She got his permission to use some of his kōrero on t-shirts supporting the language.
“Papa Tīmoti said flood the land with the language – Waipuketia te whenua ki te reo. And to me that was a positive light and a sense of direction in a dark time. It felt like he was saying ‘we don’t need anyone else to be in control of our language – the power is in our hands,” Ms Watson says.
Amaia Watson says a she has already sold a couple of hundred t-shirts but it’s a message to government, not a new career path.