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Articles on te reo Māori

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Black Ferns rugby star Ruby Tui after winning the 2022 women’s Rugby World Cup. Getty Images

‘You can’t speak what you can’t hear’ – how Māori and Pacific sports stars are helping revitalise vulnerable languages

More Indigenous sports stars are speaking their mother tongues in TV interviews and elsewhere. The challenge now is to develop truly bilingual commentary teams to keep the ball alive.
Illustration by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White.

Ngā āhuatanga ka akona mai ki a tātou e te ao Māori, mō te ao pakihi o āpōpō

Ki te tini o ngā umanga Māori, he whānui kē atu ngā hua ka whāia tēnā i ngā putanga ahumoni anake. He rautaki reanga-maha ō rātou, he whakanoho rātou i te painga mō te katoa hei ahunga mō te ihu o te waka. He akoranga i konei mō ētahi atu umanga.
Illustration by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White.

Putting the community back into business: what te ao Māori can teach us about sustainable management

Māori businesses often prioritise more than financial results, have multi-generational strategies and put community at the centre of planning. Other businesses could learn from this.
More and more Māori words are commonly used by speakers of New Zealand English. The word aroha means love or compassion. from www.shutterstock.com

Māori loanwords in NZ English are less about meaning, more about identity

Usually, a minor language will adopt words from a dominant language, but NZ English bucks this trend. It has been borrowing a growing number of Māori words, not always to add meaning but to mark identity.
On February 6, 1840, representatives of the British Crown and Māori chiefs acting on behalf of their tribes signed the Treaty of Waitangi. from Wikimedia Commons

Explainer: the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840, is New Zealand’s foundation document. But debate continues about the exact meaning of the treaty text.
Māori businesses now account for an economic asset base of more than NZ$42.6 billion, made up mostly of small and medium-sized enterprises. Judith Lienert/Shutterstock

Strong sense of cultural identity drives boom in Māori business

Māori business is booming thanks to entrepreneurs with a strong sense of cultural identity and a willingness to take risks.
Borrowings from the indigenous Māori language are so common that visitors to New Zealand are greeted in Māori as soon as they arrive. Sinead Leahy

Kia ora: how Māori borrowings shape New Zealand English

One of the distinguishing features of New Zealand English is how much it borrows from the indigenous Māori, with consequences for both languages.

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