This article was first published by RNZ.
Chinese New Zealanders say embracing te reo Māori helps them to have a deeper understanding of the country’s culture and history.
What’s more, they say, learning te reo Māori also helps reconnect them with their own cultural heritage.
Lidu Gong, a 70 -year-old librarian at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa in Mangere, believes “life starts at 70”.
A fluent te reo speaker, Gong only started to learn te reo Māori after turning 57 in 2012, 16 years after he moved to New Zealand from Heilongjiang in northern China.
His curiosity about the language can be traced back to his work at the library at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, which used te reo in the workplace.
“I was curious, and I also wanted to figure out a good way to learn it,” he recalls, adding that he previously worked as an English teacher and has always been interested in languages.
He registered for a beginner’s course and spent a lot of time doing his own reading and research.
“At that time, many Māori people didn’t speak te reo, so I didn’t have many opportunities to use te reo in conversation,” he recalls. “However, I could keep talking in te reo for half an hour nonstop.”
Gong learnt te reo in an official capacity until 2019 but has always wanted to keep improving.
“I chose to learn te reo because I wanted to improve myself and grow,” he says. “I’m still learning, improving myself in every way.”
Gong says learning te reo Māori has not only opened his mind, but also his heart.
And by speaking from his heart during his te reo language education, he now views everyday life from more of a philosophical perspective.
He drew similarities between Māori culture and Chinese Ming Dynasty philosopher Yangming Wang’s “School of the Heart” (Xīn Xué).
Also called Yangmingism, the philosophical theory takes a self-determined approach to acquiring knowledge while also promoting the notion of a unified heaven and humanity (tiān rén hé yī).
“Māori people have a very strong sense of unity in terms of heaven and humanity,” he said. “Paying tribute to nature in their karakia before a meal or a meeting seems to be a protocol.”
Many Māori proverbs have provided him with wisdom, Gong says, noting that his favourite is “Mā roto hoki kia ora ka pai te kōrero”.
“In English, it means ‘When the heart is right, everything is right’,” he says, adding that it echoes Yangmingism’s concept of “seeking from within”.
Gong encourages people, especially migrants, to acquaint themselves with te reo and not be afraid to start late.
“I believe in learning by using,” he says. “Be persistent.”
Identity reclamation
Photographer and filmmaker Julie Zhu says learning te reo Māori has inspired her to seek a deeper connection with her Chinese heritage.
Zhu came to New Zealand with her parents from Xi’an when she was four years old.
Rejecting her Chinese identity, she stopped speaking her native Mandarin language around primary school and communicated mostly in English.
However, an interest in Māori led her to start learning te reo at high school before eventually earning a language diploma.
“I grew up with lots of internalised racism, not wanting to be Chinese and rejecting my Chinese culture,” she says.
“But I think being asked to reflect on where you are through a te ao Māori perspective, that made me want to know my Chinese side more and embrace that side more. So, part of it was like that identity reclamation is what te reo helps with.”
She then started to learn more about the history of Aotearoa and the long-lasting impact of colonisation that is still being felt today.
Zhu encourages everyone who calls New Zealand home to study te reo Māori as well as learn more about the country’s history.
“Because the language reached a point where it was almost lost, it’s everyone’s responsibility to try and ... help restore what it used to be,” she says.
“We can’t just learn words here and there,” she says. “That’s helpful as well, but we need to learn what was lost and stolen from Māori in order to be able to live ... in a responsible way here as migrants.”
People should also think about how to support Māori in wider issues, she says.
Zhu said free te reo classes in Auckland were often full due to the popularity in learning the language in recent years, meaning that Māori sometimes missed out on such opportunities.
To save public lesson space for Māori, Zhu has started a private te reo study group to share her knowledge.
When asked to recite her favourite Māori proverb, Zhu highlights “Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitū te whenua”, which means “People come and go but land remains”.
“It speaks to the impermanence of life ... and it speaks to the importance of looking after Papatūānuku, the Earth Mother,” she says. “I think it’s a beautiful way to describe the world.”
New perspectives
Te reo has given Puketāpapa local board member Bobby Shen deeper insight into Māori issues.
Starting learning te reo Māori three years ago during Covid-19, Shen completed a full-immersion course last year.
Born in New Zealand to parents who moved to Aotearoa from Guangdong, Shen says his interest in te reo Māori has been amplified by his political work.
“I kind of wanted to understand more about the Māori language, but te ao Māori as well because, in a leadership position, I’m always put into positions where I’m working with Māori,” he says.
He started by signing up to an online course during the Covid-19 pandemic and kept improving his skills by reading books from the library and signing up to more courses.
“At the moment, there is some amazing movement of the revitalisation of te reo Māori, and I want to be able to support that somehow,” he says.
“Understanding the te reo that’s around us - on the road signs, on TV - it’s quite important to me.”
Shen thinks it’s important for migrants and non-Māori to take up te reo.
“We already have other languages,” he says. “We understand the importance of having a language and its connection to culture and heritage and place. We’re there ... supporting iwi Māori, really.”
Learning the language has helped Shen understand more about Māori perspectives.
“I thought I had a good handle on te ao Māori before but, when I started learning te reo, it really opened up doors on how things are expressed, how things would be thought of and what the revitalisation movement means,” he says.
He encourages anyone who is keen to give te reo a go to “just get started” and make use of books that are freely available in libraries.
Shen believes in the wisdom of the Māori proverb “Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi”, which means “With your contribution, with my contribution, the people will thrive”.
- RNZ