While Te Wiki o te reo Māori has wrapped up for this year, the week-long celebration of the Māori language serves as a good reminder that we should never stop working to revitalise the language. Whether you want to ako (learn) and become fluent, or simply use small amounts of te reo more frequently in your daily life – these are great steps in keeping the language alive.

It’s vital to preserve te reo, so future generations can continue using it, just like our tūpuna did, and there’s a role we can all play. Simply incorporating te reo into your daily conversations with whānau and friends is an easy way to help preserve one of Aotearoa’s official languages.

Here are a few ways you can help to preserve the language:

Korero (Speak)
Share kōrero with your whānau, use some reo in day-to-day conversation. Using reo words throughout your conversations can also help others to learn te reo.

Whakarongo (Listen)
Māori TV have a great range of shows designed for those learning te reo such as Kōrero Mai and Ako. You can also listen, as well as sing along to waiata to work on pronunciation.

Panui (Read)
Find stories you can read with your whānau, visit the local library and find books written in te reo, or go online. Don’t forget you can sign up to newsletters with Kupu o te rā for a word of the day, or download the new free app, also called Kupu, where you can take photos of objects and have them translated to you in te reo.

Play (Hīanga)
Involving reo during play is also a great way to begin learning te reo, and there are great apps out there to help everyone at any stage of their reo journey.

Plink Software have created an app called Tipu, to help you learn more reo. They also have resources for schools, such as flash cards, through their Tipu for schools programme.

There are also other apps designed for tamariki to learn reo through, such as He aha tēnei?

'He mauri te reo Māori nō Aotearoa māu, mā tātou katoa'
‘Make te reo Māori an essential part of New Zealand for you, for us all’
 

Even if you start off small, you can help preserve te reo by incorporating it into your daily life.