April 29, 2024
Kuia crucial for reo Māori vision
Te Taurā Whiri i te Reo Māori chief executive Ngahiwi Apanui says this year’s Ngā Tohu Reo Māori awards emphasised the importance of wāhine in language revitalisation.
Lifetime achievement awards went to Dame Rangimarie Naida Glavish, whose refusal to stop greeting toll callers with ‘kia ora’ was a flashpoint in the reo revival, veteran broadcaster Tini Molyneux and Kuini Moehau Reedy, who has been part of the kohanga reo movement since its inception.
Former Kōhanga Reo National Trust general manager and chair Dame Iritana Tāwhiwhirangi also received a round of applause at Friday’s awards ceremony in Poneke for her contributions to te reo Māori.
Mr Apanui remembers the Ngāti Porou kuia dragging him to a meeting in 1982 wit her then-boss, Māori Affairs Secretary Kara Puketapu, to discuss plans for Māori language pre-schools.
“And I’m sitting in there thinking ‘What am I doing here? I didn’t know anything about this stuff.’ But I think that was Aunty Iri’s way of kind of priming and getting you into things. I look back on it now and it’s stuck in my mind because it was my first interaction with Te Kohanga Reo,” he says.