The streets of Whangārei are set to come alive with te reo Māori, waiata and community spirit as schools, whānau and organisations gather for Hīkoi mō Te Reo Māori ki Whangārei on Thursday.
The September 17 event is part of Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori 2026 and embraces this year’s focus on Te Reo Māori Towns — te reo Māori i te hapori, encouraging communities to make the language visible, heard and used in everyday life.
Schools from across Whangārei will join choirs, community groups, health and social service agencies and local whānau for the kaupapa.
Organisers say the message is simple — te reo Māori belongs everywhere, and everyone can participate.
From the classroom into the community
A programme of activities leading into the hīkoi has been designed to make participation accessible, including waiata and poi-making workshops.
Workshop coordinator Te Aroha Dunn says organisers have taken the national theme and turned it into activities that allow people across the community to engage with the language in an enjoyable and practical way.
The emphasis is not on how fluent somebody is.
It is about participation.
A waiata, a new kupu, making poi or simply joining the hīkoi can all become entry points into te reo Māori.
That approach reflects the wider challenge facing language revitalisation — moving te reo beyond formal learning environments and making it part of ordinary community life.
Mō te akeake — a language for every day
Dunn says te reo Māori is mō te akeake — a forever language.
That means its future cannot depend on what happens during one week every September.
The real measure of revitalisation is whether te reo can increasingly be heard in homes, workplaces, shops, sports clubs, community organisations and public spaces throughout the year.
Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori provides an opportunity to celebrate progress, but events such as the Whangārei hīkoi are also designed to encourage people to take something from the week and continue using it afterwards.
Even small changes can contribute to normalisation.
Using greetings.
Learning local place names.
Introducing more reo into meetings.
Singing waiata.
Encouraging tamariki to speak without fear of making mistakes.
Each creates another space where the language can live.
A whole community kaupapa
The breadth of organisations attending the Whangārei event is particularly important.
Rather than being restricted to schools or Māori organisations, the hīkoi is bringing together different parts of the city.
Rai Rakick, Māori Outcomes at Whangārei District Council, says the community has already had a busy period of cultural connection.
Whangārei recently held its Welcoming Cities pōwhiri for new migrants arriving into the rohe, and Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori now provides another opportunity for both established communities and manuhiri to connect with the culture and Indigenous language of the place they call home.
That connection sits at the heart of the Te Reo Māori Towns concept.
A town where te reo Māori thrives is not created simply by putting bilingual signs on buildings.
It is created when people use the language.
A welcome for new communities
The involvement of migrants and new residents also highlights another dimension of language revitalisation.
For people arriving in Aotearoa from overseas, learning even a small amount of te reo Māori can provide an introduction to the history, identity and tikanga of the country.
In Whangārei, it can also connect newcomers more directly with the tangata whenua and whakapapa of the rohe.
Rather than seeing te reo Māori as something relevant only to Māori, organisers are encouraging the whole community to understand that the language is unique to Aotearoa and has a place in everyone’s experience of living here.
A taonga that can bring joy
Hūhana Lyndon, uri o Ngā Hapū o Whangārei, says te reo Māori is the Indigenous language of Aotearoa and a taonga.
But the kaupapa is also about joy.
Language revitalisation carries a history of struggle, including generations in which many Māori were disconnected from their reo.
The contemporary movement is also about creating environments where speaking and learning te reo can be positive, welcoming and enjoyable.
Waiata, poi and community gatherings provide precisely those opportunities.
For tamariki, seeing hundreds of people celebrating their language publicly can reinforce that te reo Māori belongs not only inside the classroom or on the marae, but throughout the town around them.
For adults beginning or returning to their reo journey, the same environment can make taking those first steps considerably less intimidating.
What does a Te Reo Māori Town look like?
That is ultimately the bigger question behind this year’s kaupapa.
It could mean hearing te reo Māori when entering a council building.
Seeing local ingoa Māori used correctly.
Hearing waiata in schools and workplaces.
Businesses greeting customers in te reo.
Sports clubs embracing local tikanga.
Community organisations making the language part of their everyday mahi.
And most importantly, whānau feeling comfortable speaking te reo wherever they are.
The transformation does not happen overnight.
But every community that makes more space for the language contributes to its future.
Whangārei walking for the reo
On Thursday, that future will be visible on the streets of Whangārei.
Schools, choirs, community organisations, service providers, whānau, newcomers and long-time residents will come together for Hīkoi mō Te Reo Māori ki Whangārei.
Some will be fluent.
Some will know only a handful of kupu.
Others may be taking their first steps into the language.
But that is precisely the point.
Te reo Māori i te hapori means the language belongs in the community — spoken, sung, learned, shared and enjoyed.
And if te reo Māori is truly to be mō te akeake — a forever language — its future will be built not only during Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, but every day that follows.
#TeWikiOTeReoMāori #TeReoMāori #HīkoiMōTeReo #Whangārei #TeTaiTokerau #Northland #TeReoMāoriTowns #TeReoMāoriITeHapori #MōTeAkeake #AkeAkeAke #HūhanaLyndon #TeArohaDunn #RaiRakick #NgāHapūOWhangārei #TamarikiMāori #WhānauMāori #Waiata #Poi #ManaReo #LanguageRevitalisation #IndigenousLanguage #MātaurangaMāori #TeAoMāori #Aotearoa #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea
