Auckland, September 21, 2024
We celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, Māori Language Week as non-Indigenous New Zealanders. We are embracing Te Reo Māori, not afraid to make mistakes and learn.
The theme for Te Wiki 2024 is Ake Ake Ake (A Forever Language).
It represents the resilience, adaptability and endurance of the language.
I reached out to twelve amazing wāhine to join me in this video.
Each of us is originally from a different country or of descent.
Our accents are different. We do not look the same.
But Aotearoa is now our common home.
We acknowledge the Tangata Whenua and the native language of the land, and we rejoice diversity and uniqueness, of the Tangata Tiriti.
I joined Stella Hye Chung Jeon, Dr Kudzai Zvenyika, Ania Migdalek-Jablonska, Noirie Ape, Anabella Bianchi, Sarah Davies, Irene Naidu, Ronnie Cheung, Lisa Mulligan, Silvia Fernandez Calderon, Ren Saguil and Dr Andrea Edwards in this effort.
The Māori Pepeha is a way of introducing ourselves to the places that are important to us and establishing one’s identity and heritage.
Who we are, is so much about what our places are. It tells who we are by sharing our connections with our people and places. Our greeting, our mountain, river or sea, our place, our name, and our family name.
We are also a little bit of the places we visit and fall in love, places that connect with us, soothe and transform us because the places are where our people are. Places and people that make one realise how similar life essentially is. Everywhere.
The Pepeha:
Ko Himalaya te maunga (my Mountain is the Himalayas)
Ko Ganges te awa iti (my River is Ganges)
Ko Das Roy toku whanau (my family name is Das Roy)
Ko Pankaj toku papa (my father is Pankaj)
Ko Archana toku mama (my mother is Archana)
Ko Moumita toku ingoa (my name is Moumita)
Watch the video here and share your pepeha in the comments.
Connect Moumita Das Roy
I write about: #SocialImpact; #RacialEquity; #DiversityAndInclusion
Video https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mpj5BOX9yN2AJjsfHIyjG9rkDvIykJg6/view?usp=sharing
Moumita Das Roy is a cross-industry marketer with experience in Nonprofit, Media, Advertising, and Telecom and has worked in some iconic global organisations. She lives in Auckland and writes regularly for Indian Newslink.
