This article was first published on RNZ.
Charlie O’Sullivan - or ‘Tiare’ - has travelled more than 14,000 kilometres from New Jersey to Aotearoa, not for a holiday, but to immerse herself in te ao Māori and dedicate an entire year to learning the language.
The 19-year-old was one of many tauira at Te Wānanga Takiura - a full-immersion kura kaupapa Māori in Tāmaki Makaurau - where her days were filled with karakia, waiata and kōrero.
O’Sullivan had no whakapapa connections to Aotearoa and was quick to point out her reo journey looked different to many of her classmates, who carried generational mamae (pain) tied to the loss of language.
“The obstacles that exist for Māori don’t exist for me at all, yet they still show up every day, despite everything,” she said. “That blows me away.”
O’Sullivan had always been drawn to different cultures and languages, and found particular interest with te ao Māori.
She said, on a global stage, te reo Māori was an “international example of success in a lot of ways, despite the raru [problems]”, pointing to times when the language was banned in schools and an entire generation was beaten for speaking it.
“Te reo Māori... it’s not just about the words. There’s a whole worldview in the reo.”
Growing up in New Jersey, O’Sullivan made an effort to learn the indigenous language of that rohe (region) - te reo Lenape.
“Lenape are the iwi of New Jersey, basically. Most of them don’t live in New Jersey, because of the Trail of Tears.”
The ‘Trail of Tears’ was the forced relocation and land dispossession of Native Americans in the 1830s, after congress passed the Indian Removal Act. Although not singular to the Lenape, they were forced to leave their ancestral lands by European colonists.
As a result of this, their indigenous languate had little to no resources, O’Sullivan said.
“There’s no support for it whatsoever.”
That’s when she was drawn to te reo Māori, discovering the beauty of te ao through pukapuka (books) and online resources, including ngā kōrero Māori from the pukapuka Bringing Our Languages Home, and kōrero from Hirini Moko Mead in his pukapuka Tikanga Māori.
During her research into te ao Māori, a memory stuck with her vividly.
“I heard the waiata Hine e Hine... It was the most angelic sound I’d ever heard and then I realised... this isn’t just one song, this is a whole genre, a whole ao, a whole momo."
That’s when she knew she had to come to Aotearoa.
“It was so beautiful how a [Māori worldview] could be reflected in a language and is such an insight.”
Reflecting on her time at Takiura, O’Sullivan said she found a home and whānau among her akomanga.
“It’s amazing that everyone at Takiura is doing what they’re doing - people who have no interest or experience in languages, people who have such mamae attached to everything they’re doing and such whakamā, and that they still come up every day is insane to me.”
Over the course of the year, tauira at Te Wānanga Takiura dive completely into te reo Māori, hence the ingoa rūmaki reo (immersion).
Led by pioneers of Māori education Tāwhirimatea and Kaa Williams, the wānanga (school) places a strong emphasis on oral literacy, with whakapuaki (speeches) of varying lengths planned throughout the year.
Tauira start in the first term by delivering a whakapuaki for around eight minutes entirely in te reo and, by the end of the 34-week programme, they can deliver up to an hour-long kōrero.
O’Sullivan said the first whakapuaki, although challenging, was “really amazing”.
“Seeing how people were so emotional and they brought in their whānau, or seeing some people with their kids, who go to kura kaupapa... just having a full kōrero with them was amazing, because I knew they wouldn’t have been able to have that kōrero just a few weeks before that.”
“That’s like a whole thing. I was just crying.”
O’Sullivan said the experience made her more empathetic and allowed her to think more critically.
“I’m interested in language teaching itself and language learning, and it makes me think more about all these different types of barriers that exist to different people.”
Although this haerenga (journey) was only supposed to be a year-long wānanga, O’Sullivan said the welcome was so good, she was considering extending her stay.
“It’s been amazing,” she said. “Everyone is like crazy nice and I feel like I can actually say that, because I’ve travelled a bit around the world.”
She said being in an ao Māori space had been incredibly welcoming, and encouraged more Pākehā or tauiwi to pursue the language.
Her message to those wanting to immerse themselves in te reo - “you’re not alone”.
“I would mostly try to emphasise how they’re not alone... he waka eke noa, you know? Even if Te Ao Pākehā isn’t presenting you with those things, there are so many people who have dedicated their lives to researching, writing and spreading the word.”
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.
By Layla Bailey-McDowell of RNZ.
