Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Maori.
Sir James Henare often quoted his proverb, ’Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Māori’. Translated it means ’The language is the essence of being Māori’.
Te Reo Māori, the indigenous language of Aotearoa New Zealand, is a taonga and is guaranteed protection under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It was declared an official language in 1987. Te Reo Māori and tikanga Māori are essential components of this country’s heritage.
As such, the Te Reo Māori Department is committed to maintaining that intent through the revitalization of the Māori language.
Studying te reo enhances students’ ability to communicate, to use the language to make meaning, to study the language in order to understand how it works and to learn about culture and the interrelationship between culture and language.
The curriculum guidelines outline scaffolded opportunities to learn te reo Māori.
The curriculum spans eight levels of achievement and includes suggested learning contexts in the form of sociocultural themes, topics, and text types. Learners will be encouraged to use relevant contexts of their own rohe, whakapapa and history.
Te Reo Māori is compulsory to students in Years 7 to 10, and optional in Years 11 to Year 13.
We are privileged to have Whakarongorua marae (the Okaihau College marae) as one of our core teaching and learning spaces for te Reo Māori within our school.
