Five things that caught our attention in Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2024
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’s theme is ‘Ake ake ake – A Forever Language’ which represents the resilience, adaptability and endurance of the language.
At ACE, we’re on track with our cultural competence journey. Our team have participated in The Diversity Agenda’s Te Tiriti Workshop and we’re making our way through the e-learning course Let the language fly.
We wanted to share five things that caught our attention during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2024.
Room to Rūma app for architects and engineers
Design and architecture studio Peddlethorp has released a new app called Room to Rūma, bringing te reo Māori into the realm of architecture, engineering and consstruction. It takes simple English words like ‘bathroom’ or ‘conservatory’ within architectural plans and translates them into te reo Māori. Groundbreaking stuff.
Meet the woman who voices te reo announcements on Auckland’s buses and trains
You might not recognise Josy Peita’s face but her voice could be familiar – she's the person you hear speaking te reo Māori on Auckland’s trains, buses and ferries. It’s been a huge programme of work by Auckland Transport to roll out bilingual audio and signs across its network over the past four years, and it’s playing a part in revitalising the language in Aotearoa.
Learn to speak Māori in seven days with Futurespace speaker Anton Matthews
We’re really excited to hear from Hustle Group Director Anton Matthews at our Futurespace conference next month, and this week he’s launched a free online course Basic Conversational Reo Māori in 7 days. Anton says: “Will it be easy? No, of course not. Will it sink in straight away? Almost certainly not. But if you stick to it and you learn the content at your own pace, you’ll be speaking conversational reo Māori in no time.”
Engineering researcher aims to tackle technology’s mispronunciation of Māori
Research by University of Auckland PhD candidate Isabella Shields aims to ensure te reo Māori flourishes in an increasingly digital world. Her work looks into the variations of the /r/ sound in te reo Māori and has the potential to improve outcomes for everyday apps, like Google Maps and Siri.
Beca releases position statement on Te Tiriti o Waitangi
It didn’t happen this week but it’s worth a mention here – Beca has released a statement on Te Tiriti o Waitangi to clearly communicate its position to its people, clients and partners. It’s an industry-leading initiative and an important step in Beca’s journey to grow cultural competency and create positive legacies for the communities it works in.