“Kia ora, good evening.”
For almost 20 years, the phrase became a familiar greeting on national television, tying Mike McRoberts (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa) to the public consciousness. Yet behind those words - half in te reo Māori - lay a sense of unease about his own lack of reo.
From fronting the nation’s news bulletins to reporting from some of the world’s most war-torn regions, McRoberts says his greatest challenge has been reclaiming his language. He outlines the struggles of learning te reo Māori in his book, Te Kōrero i Tōku Reo, Speaking My Language.
“It’s a haerenga that’s going to go wī then wā, it’s not a point A to point B, you know? You’re going to have good days and days where you can’t be bothered. But, also recognising the wins as well.”
The book spans 14 chapters, outlining not only his reo journey but also giving an insight into what a person goes through to reclaim te reo Māori. It begins with kupu takamua from his wife, Heidi, and Mike’s two children, Ben and Māia, before he lays out the daunting task of learning te reo.
In his introduction, he writes:
“For much of my life, I carried the weight of not knowing my own language, feeling an emptiness born of a disconnect from my Māoritanga.”
McRoberts says the lack of identity and the feeling of not belonging are among the many challenges confronting second-language learners.
“I think it’s even harder when you are Māori. Like, it’s not a second language for us. It’s our language. And so when you struggle with it, what does that say about your identity?”
The challenge of full immersion
McRoberts is a graduate of the highly successful Reo Rumaki course at Te Wānanga Takiura in Auckland. In the book, he gives special mention to the course and the bond created with his classmates.
The Diploma in Oral Māori Language Fluency (Level 5) is a one-year, full-time, fully immersive Māori language course focusing on te reo Māori, tikanga Māori, and mātauranga Māori. It’s not for the faint-hearted, however — the course requires a passion to learn te reo Māori and an 80 percent attendance rate.
He says that initial uneasiness about opening oneself up to learning te reo stops many from taking the plunge.
“That’s what I think holds people back sometimes from even starting their journeys. But, you’ve got to, you know, you’ve got to get on that mountain, that maunga.
“He maunga teitei te maunga o te mātauranga, it’s a lofty mountain, the mountain of knowledge. But, so long as you’re on the mountain, ka pai.”
