Ko te timatanga o te matauranga
Ko te wehi ki a lhowa
Maungarongo ki te mata o te whenua
Whakaaro nui ki te tangata

Tēnā koe e te tau ruamano mā ono. Ngā mihi manaaki ki a koutou, ngā kaipānui, mō ō koutou kaha ki te tautoko mai i te kaupapa, arā, ko te reo. Nō reira, e te iwi, kia kaha rā ki te kōrero i tō tātou reo rangatira. Kia ora tātou katoa.

In this issue we bring you the dates and funding categories for Round 7 as well as some advice for applying in the high priority categories.

First though, he kupu poroporoaki from the inaugural Chair of Te Rōpū Tautoko (Mā Te Reo Fund Management Committee), Haami Piripi.

Haami Piripi

E te iwi kua tae ki te wā kua tahuri te kanohi ki te kāinga. E ai ki te kōrero, ko ngā mea hanga nā te tangata tū te ao, ka ngaro i te pō.

Nāku anō tōku pā i hanga i runga i te pūtea āwhina a “Mā Te Reo.” I oti i ahau ngā kaupapa e ea ai i tēnā take, tēnā take. Waihoki, ka mahue te mahi nei i ahau, ā, ko aku mahi ka noho hei momotunga mō te rangatira hōu e haere mai ana. E tika ana me mihi atu ki te rahi i piri ki te toka o te ao Māori, arā, tō tātou reo.

Hei aha rā te kōrero, waiho mā ngā pou mahi e tohu ake ki te hunga e kore e tū i te ao, i te pō. Heoi, ka hoki tēnei kia tū me he rākau tūwatawata ki te hauāuru. Ko Hokianga-whakapau-karakia puta noa ki te hiku o te Ika a Māui.

Koia nei ko te mihi me te tangi ki a tātou katoa. Hei konei rā! Ko Haami Piripi tēnei e makere iho ana i taku tūranga i Mā Te Reo. Engari, ahakoa kua makere iho au, kei te tū tō tātou pā. Mā reira ko tōna rangatira ko te reo kia kaha, kia manawanui, kia ita!

Haami who has been the Chief Executive of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori for the last six years, as well as the Chair of Te Rōpū Tautoko, will be leaving both posts in early 2007. Haami has seen Mā Te Reo grow and develop since it was first established in 2001.

We hope to introduce our new Chief Executive and Te Rōpū Tautoko Chair in our next i-pānui.

Te Rōpū Tautoko met last month and confirmed the following Round 7 dates:

It is time to start thinking about your next reo Māori project and about applying to Mā Te Reo for funding to assist you. For examples of the wide range of projects that Mā Te Reo has funded, check out the profiles section of the Mā Te Reo website - http://www.ma-tereo.co.nz/project-profiles/index.htm

Te Rōpū Tautoko has also indicated that the following funding categories, listed by priority ‘bands’ will be available in Round Seven.

Language Planning
Kura Reo – Whakapakari Reo
Kura Reo ā-Iwi

Language Resources
Events/Promotions
Wānanga Reo

Information Communication Technology (ICT)
Language Programmes and Classes

Language Planning remains a high priority funding category for Round Seven. If you would like to find out more about language planning and why it is considered to be an important intervention tool for language regeneration, here are some starting points:

Go to the Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori website, www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz. Here you will find some general information about Language Planning under http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/english/services_e/index.shtml
or http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/maori/services_m/index.shtml

You can also download the following two language planning booklets from the ‘Communities’ section, under ‘Support’.
http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/english/services_e/community_support.shtml
or http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/maori/services_m/community_support.shtml

The titles of these booklets are:
Kia Ora ai te Reo Māori – Planning for Māori Language Regeneration
Te Reo Māori i To Hapori – Community Māori Language Profiles

The first booklet provides a brief overview of the step by step process of developing a language plan. The second guides you through the process of creating your community Māori language profile. We highly recommend these booklets to those of you who are contemplating undertaking language planning, which for the want of a better description is really just ‘planned and deliberate management of language regeneration activities’.

Lots of Mā Te Reo applicants who apply in the Language Planning category incorrectly, think it is about planning to, for example, run a series of wānanga. In fact, it can be a very complex and time-consuming process (albeit most rewarding and worthwhile), so it is important to be prepared before applying for funding in this category.

Finally, another good starting point when investigating language planning is the national ‘Māori Language Strategy 2003’. This can be downloaded from the Te Puni Kōkiri website,
http://www.tpk.govt.nz/publications/subject/default.asp#language. Alternatively, go to your local Te Puni Kōkiri office if you would like to pick up a hard copy. The Te Puni Kōkiri website also provides access to a number of research reports on the Māori language including regional information that might be useful for your community profile.

The Language Planning evaluation report will also be available on the Mā Te Reo website well before the next round opens and we also encourage you to download this as it gives a real community perspective to the language planning process, with lots of comments/advice from those who have ‘been there, done that’.

Finally, the Mā Te Reo team might also be able to connect you with others in your region who have developed language plans or who are currently doing so if you think you would find that useful.

Another high priority category for this next Round is the relatively new category of Kura Reo ā-Iwi. Mā Te Reo is very excited to be supporting three regional week long immersion Kura for speakers of reo Māori in Rounds five and six. The first one was run recently by Ngāiterangi and included participants from Ngāti Pukenga and Ngāti Ranginui. We understand that the Kura was very successful and that the iwi involved want to continue with these Kura with a different one of the three iwi facilitating each year. We hope to be able to profile this Kura in our next i-pānui.

This year we are also funding Kura Reo ā-Iwi for Ngāti Rangitihi and te iwi o Ngāitai and again, we hope to be able to profile these in upcoming ī-pānui.

Te Rōpū Tautoko welcomes applications from other hapū/iwi who are ready to establish their own Kura Reo ā-Iwi.

The Mā Te Reo team has limited capacity to undertake promotional visits throughout the motu. If you are interested in having one or two of us come and present to your community before the next round opens for applications please let us know and we’ll see if we can accommodate you. Last year as we led up to the 2006 funding round we visited Kaitaia, Hawkes Bay/Wairoa and the Wairarapa to explain what Mā Te Reo is all about, answer any questions and take people through the application process.

Nerissa is currently monitoring the last seven Round Four projects and expects that all will be concluded by January 2007 at the latest. 

Clayton is monitoring Round Five projects and sends a further reminder to have your project ID number handy when you call him, or if emailing, please include the number as part of the subject heading or in the body of your message.

The majority of Round Six projects are currently underway.

As with most things the first time is always the hardest. This certainly is the case for first time Mā Te Reo providers. We realise that our processes can be quite baffling the first time around. However, when you've been through the process once and become familiar with our requirements, providers are usually away and the majority manage to complete their projects without too much hassle. The team believe that it would be useful to spend some time taking you through the contracting process in this issue, and we hope that even our regular providers might find something of use in the following. This information is not meant to replace, but to complement, that contained in the application material and various covering letters.

As a direct result of the 2004/5 evaluation project which looked at Mā Te Reo funded language resources, the Mā Te Reo team revised and implemented new contract deliverables for all resource based projects. For those of you who want to undertake resource based projects, the following four points are important to take into consideration:

One of our standard contractual deliverables for all resource based projects is that the reo Māori content of a resource must be quality assured by either, “Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, a certified translator or other duly recognised Māori language expert”.

We are always happy to assist those of you who ask for names of people that are certified translators and/or liaising with our Māori Language Services team.

Another standard contractual deliverable that has begun to appear within the funding agreements of our resource based projects is the demonstrated use of the Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori orthographic conventions. For those who may be unfamiliar with this term, ‘orthographic conventions’ are a set of writing conventions that Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori recommends be observed by writers and editors of Māori language texts.

The Commission believes it is essential for the survival of the language that a standardised written form be adopted by all those involved in the production of material in Māori, in order that a high quality literary base is built up as a resource for the Māori language learners of today and of the future.

To download a copy of the orthographic conventions, please use the following links:
http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/english/pub_e/conventions2.shtml
or http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/maori/pub_m/conventions2.shtml  

Unfortunately, there have been a few resources that have slipped through the cracks in relation to quality assurance, especially around the consistent use of macrons. The Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori website offers a step by step process to download a free macroniser onto your computers. For those who are interested, please use the following link:
http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/english/resources_e/download/keyboard.shtml

From Round 6 we have been asking all providers approved funding to develop language resources to trial their resource/s at prototype stage, using the assessment criteria developed as part of the 2004/5 Māori language resources evaluation project. We will be making the assessment criteria available on the Mā Te Reo website soon, and will let you all know once it is available to download.

The 2004/5 Mā Te Reo evaluation report on Māori Language Resources and 2005/6 Mā Te Reo evaluation report on Māori Language Planning will also be available on the Mā Te Reo website soon. Again, we will let you all know as soon as these two reports have been posted.

Mā Te Reo Events

Mā Te Reo has been receiving an increased number of applications from Mau Taiaha groups wanting to hold one-off events/wānanga. The key to being approved funding as a contribution towards your event, is to show clearly in your application that te reo Māori development of the members of your group is increased/enhanced. Koraunui Mau Taiaha Rōpū (Hutt Valley, Wellington) has been repeatedly successful in gaining assistance from Mā Te Reo because all aspects of their wānanga, including the planning, promotional material, evaluation, as well as of course, workshops on the day, show a clear commitment to te reo Māori. One of the participants at the wānanga held in November prepared the following article.

A great celebration of Te Reo Māori, Mau Taiaha, and Mana Wāhine was held at Koraunui Marae, Stokes Valley, over the weekend of 3-5 November 2006. More than 100 participants from all over Te Ika a Māui, from Te Hiku o Te Ika (Whangārei, Kaikohe), from Te Wairoa, Heretaunga (Napier), Takapau, Danniverke, Otaki, Te Tai Rawhiti (Te Araroa) and Te Upoko o Te Ika gathered in a celebration of Māori identity.

There were two streams of Taiaha grading: an intermediate and a senior grading were afforded the opportunity for a gathering of youth and their supporters to expand their learning and their appreciation of tikanga Māori.

The hui was hosted by Koraunui Mau Taiaha Rōpū, an autonomous Taiaha group that is affiliated to Dr Peter Sharple’s national wānanga Te Whare Tū Taua o Aotearoa. The kaupapa of the hui was to inspire our youth with the kaupapa of Mau Taiaha as a vehicle for empowerment of both reo Māori and Mana Wāhine. Kuia were invited to give inspirational talks on their areas of expertise, including karanga, raranga, rongoa, waiata and whakapapa.

Those esteemed wāhine included: Tiahuia Te Puea Herangi Ramihana Gray, Makere Jordan-Kaa and Ina Hughes.

Robin Tipuna Peachey, Leader of Koraunui Mau Taiaha Rōpū, made the following comments:

“The hui transcended all expectations; it was an awesome event for both rangatahi and kuia. We were all inspired by the kaupapa, and it was a truly tremendous hui for all of us – young and old.”

“The participation of youth was all important to the success of the hui. Young people who had come to grade in Mau Taiaha were exposed to the teachings of our kuia and the expert tuition of our reo Māori tutors. The presence of our kuia lent an aura of dignity and oneness with our tipuna who had laid the foundations of our tikanga that we express today”.

“An integral component of the hui was the numerous and varied reo Māori sessions, which were short, sharp, and entertaining. Each learning session used games and youth-based kaupapa to capture and engage the young people in te reo Māori”.

“Throughout the two Taiaha grading sessions, each of eight hours duration, extensive use of reo Māori (90-100%) was used by the graders and their assistants. The use of repetition and demonstration ensured that all participants clearly understood all instructions.

“All participants from the kuia, matua, and rangatahi were engaged in learning in an interactive and stimulating environment. A feeling of unity and empowerment of being Māori, and using te reo Māori as an expression of identity, was felt by all.”

Participants at the wānanga

Waimārama Kura Whakapakari Reo 2007

The next Kura Reo - Whakapakari Reo funded by Mā Te Reo is being held from 14-19 January 2007 at Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT), Taradale. For those of you not familiar with the Kura, these are nationally based week long (five-day) immersion courses for proficient (not-beginner) speakers of reo Māori. A group of very high calibre tutors facilitate the various sessions over the five days. The Kura, which have been running since 1990, at that time primarily for kaiako at Kōhanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa Māori, have developed a loyal following of individuals who return year after year for a hit of te reo me ona tikanga. If you would like to find out more about the Waimarama Kura please contact:

Helen Barlow
Phone: 06 878-6624
Email: helenbarlow12@xtra.co.nz

Mā Te Reo has contracted Kateraina Pipi (FEM Ltd) to conduct an evaluation of the Kura Reo funding category. Basically we want to collect evidence about the outcomes we are getting from our investment in the Kura Reo funding category and how we might better support these projects in the future. The evaluation will run until June 2007. Kateraina has the full support of the Kura Reo and she is taking very much a collaborative approach working alongside those involved in the running of the Kura Reo. We will report on the outcomes of the evaluation once the project is completed.

Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori will administer three Hui Whakangungu Training Workshops as preparation for Te Toi Reo Māori Translators and Interpreters Examinations 2007.

The workshops will be held on the following dates:

The examinations will be held on the following dates:

Please direct any enquiries to:

Stormy Mohi
Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori
Ph (04) 471 6739
stormy@tetaurawhiri.govt.nz

Note: If you would like to promote any upcoming Mā Te Reo funded events, wānanga reo or reo Māori classes in the Mā Te Reo ī-pānui, please email Nerissa Aramakutu at nerissa@tetaurawhiri.govt.nz

Jasmine undertook a monitoring visit to Rotorua and Tauranga last month, catching up with representatives from the following ten organisations.

As always after these trips she returned truly in awe at the amount of language regeneration work that is taking place in Māori communities throughout the motu and was particularly impressed to see the level of planning and coordination happening in places such as Tauranga.

Repeated again for your information, your key Mā Te Reo contact people and our direct dial numbers are:

Jasmine Cooper
Project Manger
04 471 - 6727
jasmine@tetaurawhiri.govt.nz

Nerissa Aramakutu
Project Advisor (Monitoring and Evaluation)
04 471 - 6728
nerissa@tetaurawhiri.govt.nz

Clayton Reiri
Project Advisor
04 471 - 6733
clayton@tetaurawhiri.govt.nz

Catherine Sinclair
Project Project Advisor, part-time
04 471 - 6730
catherine@tetaurawhiri.govt.nz