The Auckland Zoo is taking language revitalisation to another level, using te reo Māori in its interactions with the animals that are in its care.
“When I’m working in Te Wao Nui a Tāne, [I] will call out, ‘karanga mai e ngā tīeke’, like, try and get them to call out to us,” says Conservation Learning Facilitator Koha Kahui-McConnell.
Kahui-McConnell (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Porou) works with thousands of tamariki and rangatahi from a diverse range of kura. Over the past three years, he has seen a significant shift — from simply using te reo greetings to engaging with animals in Māori.
“The Zoo has made a lot of really really important efforts to try and embrace te ao as well as te reo Māori.”
Opened in 1922, Auckland Zoo is Aotearoa’s largest zoo, home to more than 1,400 animals across around 135 species. It sees more than 700,000 visitors each year while delivering conservation and education programmes.
Kua tipu, kua whanake Te Whare Kararehe o Tāmaki
Kevin Buley, Auckland Zoo Director, moved to Aotearoa from the UK and joined Auckland Zoo in 2009. He admits he found it difficult to tell that the Auckland Zoo was one that belonged to Aotearoa, New Zealand. Since then, he says the zoo has made te reo and te ao Māori central to its identity.
“Championing te reo Māori is really a key part of who we are as an organisation. It defines us,” says Buley.
“What we’ve done over the last 15 years is redevelop the zoo physically, evolved culturally and operationally to really incorporate the Māori worldview, te ao Māori in to who we are and what we do.”
Buley also believes those Indigenous values are important for conservation.
“Indigenous knowledge, where humans are part of nature, not apart from nature, that the wellbeing of us as a species is intrinsically linked to the wellbeing of the planet and we can’t separate the two.”
Ahakoa he iti, he māpihi pounamu
For the past five years, Lyndelle Paniora has worked as the zoo’s Kaupapa Māori Advisor. She says around five staff members are fluent speakers of te reo Māori.
“It’s a zoo that’s been zooing for 105 years and finding carving space for te reo Māori and te ao Māori in an organisation [can] be a challenge,” says Paniora.
Regular reo and waiata lessons, along with working closely with mana whenua in Tāmaki, are some of the strategies helping the zoo carry out its work in a more Māori way.
“Trying to develop a level of independence so that when someone like myself is not in the room they can go ooh how do you pronounce that? And rather than ask the Māori, they’ve got a couple of tools in their pocket,” she explains.
“In the hope that the next level for them is that they start to see the relevance of te reo Māori that they are learning and apply it.”
Bird Team leader, Natalie Clark, says she and her team are on their te reo journey, with te ao Māori shaping how they care for taonga species.
“We appreciate that mana whenua have a special connection with these taonga species, and so, a lot of the work we do - whether it’s as simple as choosing a name - we want to make sure that we choose a name that‘s respectful and also significant to that type of animal.”
For Kahui-McConnell, the work is also about inspiring the next generation.
“[It’s] really cool actually is to see kids from mainstream schools hear me speaking te reo Māori and them going, ‘he’s Māori, I’m Māori too.”
He hopes to continue strengthening his own reo.
“At the moment, I’m going to the kura pō at Unitec [and] hoping by the end of the year I’ll be able to speak to Kōhanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa i roto i te reo Māori katoa.”
Paniora hopes the language becomes an everyday part of life throughout the zoo.
“That te reo Māori is spoken and heard without question because it’s time, and sometimes that means that will be about employing more Māori, reo Māori speaking staff. Building reo champions across the organisation.”
