Maori Language Week

Last week was Māori Language week. We learned about Māori words and how to pronounce them. It was surprising to see how many of the cities and towns in New Zealand were being pronounced wrong. In class, we learned how to pronounce them correctly. We also learned about the vowels and how different it was to English.

We noticed that the more we learn about it the more we feel proud and have pride in it.
Māori hakas were used to frighten the enemies during war. The  Pōwhiri was to test if the visitors to their Marae were friend or foe.

Taonga means treasure. In English it sounds like something that pirates bury, but in Māori, it means much more. It means something special and something that means a lot to them. To most of them, it was their land that was their taonga because it was special and was their home.
These are some videos that we watched in class: