Te reo about connection

Free Māori language classes offered for all

Free te reo Māori classes are on offer in Eltham and Stratford. Organised and taught by the Rev Paul Bowers-Mason, Anglican missioner for Central Taranaki, the classes are for beginners or those with “just a small amount of te reo”, he said.

He ran similar classes last year that were well attended.

“Most of those people want to come back again to strengthen what they learned and to go a bit further, but there is room for new people and they will get lots of encouragement from the others who are still very much beginners.”

There was no cost to learners, Bowers-Mason said.

“The classes are free because this is part of my missioner role to connect the church with the community and offer something valuable to everyone.”

Being able to speak te reo, or even understand a little bit of it, is something Bowers-Mason considers incredibly valuable to all.

“Learning te reo helps us get over that barrier of us-and-them thinking, and to change it to thinking of all of us together. There’s nothing like learning a language to really understand a people and a culture from the inside, instead of keeping it at a distance. It connects us with people for whom that language is important. If we have Māori ancestory it connects us with our family identity; if we have Pākehā ancestors, it connects us with those settlers way back who often needed to speak some Māori.”

The classes were a great way to “put your toe in the water of learning te reo”, he said.

“My strength as a te reo teacher is in understanding the difficulties someone has when they start learning any new language, so you will be taken on the journey as gently as possible.”

The classes focus on pronunciation — including of place names along with an explanation of their meaning, basic greetings, how to give a pepeha, and Māori words that are becoming part of English conversation, as well as basic karakia and simple waiata.

Bowers-Mason said even though the classes took place in churches and were being run by a minister, that didn’t mean they were open to only Christians.

“They are open to everyone. The content is not religious, but with te reo, spiritual concepts are always close to the surface. Some of the basic components of Christianity have become an integral part of the language and culture, alongside traditional Māori concepts.”

Bowers-Mason teaches the classes himself.

“I am not an advanced conversational speaker of te reo, but I lead bilingual services including local tangi, and have a strong background in te reo from Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato — the University of Waikato. I get some nice feedback from Māori about my pronunciation too.”

Learning te reo was more than only words, he said.

“Learning a language is good for the mind and the soul.”