This article was first published on RNZ.
Angel Stewart (Ngāti Hauā,Te Arawa,Tainui), is a lawyer and content creator who has built a strong following online, but at the heart of her mahi is a deep commitment to te reo Māori and her whānau.
Like many others, she is part of a resurgence of people reclaiming and protecting a taonga that was denied to previous generations, te reo Māori.
Stewart grew up with what she calls “the very basic standard amount of reo” at home.
Her mother, a reo Māori kaiako in primary and intermediate schools, hadn’t grown up speaking the language herself, so exposure in the whare was limited.
Like many of their generation, both of her parents were discouraged from using te reo.
“Mum would always share with us… we were told you’re going to go nowhere if you speak te reo,” she told RNZ.
“They were just told that you live a better life if it’s away from te reo Māori. So you see that mamae and you have to have that compassion when they’re learning it again.”
During high school, Stewart took part in a rangatahi initiative, connecting with kura across South Waikato.
She saw the challenges some rangatahi faced, particularly those whose dominant language was te reo Māori. Many were navigating complex personal situations, and Stewart noticed a gap in how they could articulate themselves in te ao Pākehā.
“This eventually became a reality for myself and our whānau, when we had our younger siblings come into Te Ao Mārama, learning te reo Māori at kura kaupapa,” she said.
“We grew up in mainstream and they’re growing up in kura kaupapa… I couldn’t relate to what their development looks like as tamariki.”
“Seeing that barrier… it really sparked something in me to want to learn.”
She also recalled a “wake-up call” moment with her younger brother, to which there is a 10-year age gap.
“He goes to me, you know, I feel dumb. And I said, why do you feel dumb? And he goes, I feel dumb in English and Māori.”
“That’s when I realised… this is way more important than I think we’re putting emphasis on,” she said.
“They didn’t sign up to be the revitalisers of te reo Māori in our whānau; they were just going to kura.”
Part of that kōrero is the reason why she is a lawyer today.
“Working with those rangatahi and seeing that gap in my own backyard made me realise, you know, we can work together for this.”
That moment was a key driver for her to immerse herself in te reo, and she mapped out a plan to do so as part of her studies at Waikato University.
“I planned it as part of my study plan. I’d do my first three years of compulsory law papers, then take a gap year for full immersion, then finish my final year with my reo Māori fully integrated.”
Stewart attended Te Tohu Paetahi, an intensive one-year Māori language immersion diploma at Waikato University that is designed to make tauira fluent in te reo Māori, regardless of their reo proficiency.
Since then, Stewart has made a conscious effort to speak only in te reo Māori at home.
“I seldomly speak to them in English. I only speak to them in Māori, even if they talk to me in English. And they go, ‘Oh, we always speak Māori.’”
Today, her home is now a reo Māori-speaking whare.
“I could have never imagined that… this generation is reclaiming te reo. We understand the trauma our whānau carry around te reo Māori, and it’s not until these moments that you can actually see the generational appreciation for it.”
Stewart said that ‘why’ became her kākano - the seed.
“What comes from every seed is a beautiful tree, hopefully. And those branches extend to wider reasons that I couldn’t even appreciate at that time and in that moment.”
After completing her year of study, Stewart helped run intimate hapū reo Māori wānanga, which encouraged her whanaunga - including her aunties, uncles, parents and other siblings - to begin their own journeys.
She later returned as a kaiāwhina at Te Tohu Paetahi, teaching her little sister, mum and dad.
“Those are some of those branches that that kākano can extend to. It inspires more than you can appreciate in the moment.’”
As a part of her haerenga, Stewart also shares her reo online through everyday videos, running, cooking, day-in-the-life snippets, and her mahi.
Through her content in te reo Māori, she has created a whānau of supporters, with over 43,000 followers on TikTok with 3.3 million likes and counting.
“It started off as my own way of keeping te reo Māori alive in my everyday life.”
She remembers a moment during her mums journey with te reo, where even though they wanted it to exist in their everday life, they still struggled to use it practically.
“I was like this... why don’t we go for a run? And I will say it in te reo Māori. Why don’t we get me a coffee and I’ll do it in te reo Māori. So then it became that.”
“I’d do little snippets and send them to our group chat… then I was like, yeah, I’m going to post it on Instagram,” she said.
Stewart believes te reo Māori doesn’t need to be limited to formal events or wānanga, and said posting reo Māori content online of her doing everyday things, is a part of normalising the language.
“It doesn’t have to be assigned to kaupapa like Te Wiki o te Reo Māori… it can be anywhere and everywhere.
Stewart believes her reo journey has helped strengthen her Māoritanga and personal growth.
“Te reo Māori is very poetic… I think more poetically, and I thank te reo Māori for that,” she laughed.
It has also shaped her legal career, allowing her to engage meaningfully with Māori communities,
“It’s because of te reo Māori that I’ve been able to get to this place,” she said.
“Had I not had my reo Māori, would I be sitting here being able to help our whānau like this?”
Reflecting on her own haerenga, she urges others beginning their reo journey not to let whakamā hold them back.
“When we’re learning te reo Māori, and I was the exact same.. everyone kind of gets to this point in their journey, especially at the beginning, where they get frustrated because they can’t say a full sentence or hold a full conversation.”
But Stewart said you have to give yourself some grace.
“Get comfortable being wrong, making mistakes, get comfortable being slow... you find a really good circle where you can hold that comfort.”
One of her favourite and profound whakataukī, Whāia te iti kahurangi, which can be translated to ‘Seek the treasure that you value most dearly; if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain’, also embodies that sentiment.
“I heard a kōrero that the iti kahurangi is that small sliver of blue you see in a grey sky...even when you’re in the greyest of days, there’s always that iti kahurangi that you’ve got to look out for, and you’ve got to strive for that.”
“It’s a reminder that there’s always something positive out there, even when it feels like there’s not.”
This article is part of an ongoing series by Māori news journalist Layla Bailey-McDowell, sharing the journeys of individuals reclaiming the taonga of te reo Māori and embracing their Māoritanga.
By Layla Bailey-McDowell of RNZ.
