Te Wiki o te Reo Māori is an annual celebration for all New Zealanders to show their support for the Māori language and there is some exciting stuff happening in the engineering and consulting sector.
This year marks 50 years of Māori Language Week and the theme ‘Ake ake ake – A Forever Language’ represents the resilience, adaptability and endurance of the language.
At ACE, we’re on track with our cultural competence journey. Many of our team members have participated in The Diversity Agenda Te Tiriti Workshop, completed the e-learning course ‘Let the language fly’ and attended workshops with Te Amokura Consultants to sharpen up our pronunciation and pepeha.
We wanted to share five things that caught our attention during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2025.
Engineering New Zealand is ditching 16 English words for kupu Māori
Our friends at Engineering New Zealand have committed to using 16 kupu instead of their English equivalent to ensure they incorporate te reo into their communications, and they’ll drop the translation as the words become more familiar. Booked a meeting with someone at Engineering New Zealand? They’ll probably refer to it as a hui. Talking to them about your job? That will be a kōrero about your mahi.
The rangatahi Māori shaping the future at T+T
Tonkin + Taylor is shining a light on rangatahi (young leaders) who are not only excelling in their day-to-day engineering and technical roles but also leading the way in revitalising Māori language, practices and culture. These young practitioners are weaving cultural identity into the fabric of their work, creating spaces where language and heritage thrive. Their influence is felt across T+T’s projects, organisation and communities.
The dictionary of Māori business words and terms
After three years of research, the University of Waikato and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga have published an open-source dictionary of more than 900 Māori business words and terms – like public liability insurance / inihua pare taunaha tūmatanui. If you’re keen to incorporate more te reo into your business and need to find the right words, this dictionary authored by Tāne Karamaina is the best place to start.
The Diversity Agenda committee members share their favourite kīwaha (phrases)
Our friends at The Diversity Agenda are sharing videos of themselves saying their favourite kīwaha (phrases) they use at mahi and encouraging others to adopt them. Tēnā koe i tēnā – thanks for that! We’ll be keeping an eye on their LinkedIn page as they share more videos throughout the week.
50 wero reo Māori – challenge yourself and uplift the reo
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori this year is all about making te reo Māori visible and taking simple actions that demonstrate your support and commitment to te reo Māori. Choose from a range of 50 reo-based challenges to complete over the week. It’s a great list – there’s a challenge for everyone, whether you’re fluent, just starting out, or somewhere in between. We’re kicking off with wero number 5 (creating a reo Māori playlist to jam all week) and number 8 (ordering some of the new Ake Ake Ake Te Wiki merch from The Warehouse).