Māori Language Week has seen various initiatives launched this week using social media. However, when the week is over, will social media still be used enough to promote the language to youth?
They are the faces of tomorrow and they all use social media.
Central Hawkes Bay College students Anna Douglas says, “Social media is a huge part of modern day society and it's definitely important to get Māori out there because it's not common enough because it was the first language in New Zealand so it should be a lot more common and so I think using social media is a great idea.”
Although there are some bilingual and te reo Māori web-series and tools on social media, it might not always be filtering through.
“I haven't heard of many but I think it would be a good idea,” says student Taurito Hutana-Tichborne.
“Sometimes Facebook is a good way to promote te reo Māori, but other times youth aren't really using Māori on Facebook or social media. Yes, te reo Māori is being used sometimes for real random things,” says student Tereanga Ihaka.
They do have some ideas to better utilise social media to promote the language.
“I think young ones should be doing it because youth know how to reach youth. Older ones are telling us to always listen, so I think it would be good to have youth reps who could engage the rest of the youth to follow their lead,” says Te Wharekura o Hoani Waititi student Te Ua Tumoana.
“To me, they should expand it more on snap shat host more events on facebook and do more out in the community,” says Keisha Rarere from Flaxmere College.
“We should talk in Māori when we are on social media so that people new to the language can learn, globally too,” says Harono Hokianga from Whare Tapere.
Although the future of the language is not certain, one thing is, and that is that social media is not going away anytime soon.
In addition to this interview, Māori language advocate Mataia Keepa joins Te Kāea to discuss te reo Māori on Social Media.
