As the late Moana Jackson commented, the meaning of Te Tiriti will be talked about in each generation because it is about a relationship between Maori and Pakeha and relationships must always be worked on.

Here, we focus on the learning of te reo Maori by non-Maori in relation to Te Tiriti and the Maori concept of whakapapa in the hope of continuing the conversation and the relationship.

For full disclosure, we are married. Pania is Ngati Porou and her father is a native speaker. Brian is Pakeha. We both learned te reo Maori as a second language as adults. We will come back to this later.

The learning of te reo Maori by non-Maori has become cool. Growing numbers of non-Maori are enrolled in te reo courses and there are many new resources to support their learning. It cannot be separated from Tiriti concerns and whakapapa.

Several authors have commented on this phenomenon of non-Maori enthusiasm for te reo Maori and Maori knowledge, highlighting the complex nature of the motivations involved.

Alison Jones, a Pakeha scholar in Indigenous education, notices how the demand by non-Maori to have te reo echoes the colonising demand to have Maori land.

Catherine Delahunty, a Pakeha activist in environmental and social justice, reminds non-Maori to "stay in our lane", and warns that if we don't, we effectively co-opt and attempt to control things that don't belong to us.

Nicola Bright, a senior researcher of Tuhoe and Ngati Awa descent at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER), tells us Maori should benefit first from the revitalisation of te reo Maori.

Georgina Tuari Stewart, a scholar who explores the nexus between culture and education, alerts us to the need to accept the limits of our ability to know in relation to Maori knowledge.

In our own work, as academics focused on Indigenisation and decolonisation of education systems, we talk of New Zealand and Aotearoa as two different countries occupying the same land. Te Tiriti is about relations between these two countries.

A whakapapa perspective on language

We see the learning of te reo Maori with a whakapapa lens. We refer to whakapapa as the emergence of new entities from their previous forms. Inherent in our understanding is an acceptance that entities have a natural right to have their whakapapa respected.

For most non-Maori, languages have been commodified and are available on demand. We liken this to having a language supermarket. Customers can buy various products "off the shelf" to allow them to learn any language they like.

These days, the supermarket is virtual and the products are digital apps. We see the dark irony in Maori having to shop for their own language in this supermarket.

In this commodified world, language is understood as a symbolic code that can be learned to express your thoughts. Learning a new language just means learning a new code. This is a distinctly colonising and capitalist view of language which cuts right across whakapapa, treating language as a disembodied entity, fixed through a vocabulary and a set of rules.

Viewed through whakapapa, a language is inherent in the worldviews and experiences of the people who emerge with it. Seen this way, languages cannot be separated from the people who speak them and who have inherited them from their ancestors.

Could non-Maori learning te reo be akin to colonisation?

The learning of te reo Maori, whether we like it or not, is already in the public domain. Anyone can learn it and we encourage everyone to do so. But if not done well and ethically, it could be another wave of colonisation.

If we go about learning te reo Maori as if it were a symbolic code or a commodified product that will provide certain (economic and self-investment) benefits, several things become apparent.

Since we learn a commodified version of te reo, we are not part of any processes of emergence alongside the people whose heritage te reo Maori is. This commodified form is in fact part of whakapapa for many non-Maori. It has emerged from our experiences and worldview and is a form of appropriation.

The taking of other people's stuff and refashioning it for our purposes is indeed colonisation. But there is also great potential for growth as people and as a nation because learning a language can change you.

In whakapapa terms, the presence of te reo Maori in your life has become part of the emergence of the next versions of you and your descendants. The bottom line is to understand and respect whakapapa.Read more: Learning to live with the 'messy, complicated history' of how Aotearoa New Zealand was colonised

Honouring te Tiriti

Non-Maori people must first acknowledge the right for te reo to emerge in the world along with the people whose own emergence is intimately entwined with it through whakapapa. That's iwi Maori.

This is a difficult task because many non-Maori are so used to believing that, in theory at least, they can know and possess anything (if they want to and put in the effort). Respecting whakapapa then involves non-Maori in a necessary self-limitation which runs counter to their own cultural development in a capitalist, exploitative and predatory culture.

Non-Maori must figure out how to acquire te reo Maori without possessing it. It might help to return to our idea of two countries overlapping in time and space - New Zealand and Aotearoa. Honouring Te Tiriti then asks those of us who live in New Zealand to honour what happens in another country, Aotearoa.

We would never say, for example, that we have claims over what happens in China, nor that because we speak Chinese we have some special insight or claim over China or Chinese people. Adopting a similar stance with respect to te reo Maori as the native language of Aotearoa will bring us closer to being able to respect its right to have natural emergence through whakapapa.

For us, even though we converse with each other every day in te reo Maori, one of us speaks Maori and the other doesn't.

• Brian Tweed and Pania Te Maro are married. Brian is a Senior Lecturer at Massey University and Pania is an Associate Professor also at Massey University.
• First published in The Conversation. Republished with permission.

She lashed out in a tweet against "tokenistic" use of te reo by employees of DOC "as an attempt to show govt depts are culturally competent". She told Stuff she encouraged the use of the Maori language, but wanted it used "with integrity".

"You want to use te reo, you use it with integrity and use it responsibly," Stuff quoted Allan as saying. "This isn't a ‘everybody go out and use mahi and kaupapa' and say you have a deep and enduring relationship with te ao Maori."

Of course this shouldn't apply only to DOC, where Allan was in charge before this week's cabinet reshuffle resulted in her elevation to the justice portfolio. The same message could be directed at all government agencies where middle-class Pakeha public servants, eager to demonstrate their solidarity with the tangata whenua, indulge in an ostentatious display of virtue-signalling by using token Maori words and phrases. I wonder whether Radio New Zealand also got the memo.

Being Maori, Allan could get away with this rebuke. No Pakeha could; the cries of racism would be deafening. But to me it has always seemed patronising that many Pakeha liberals flaunt their cultural sensitivity with expressions such as "morena", "nga mihi" and "doing the mahi" (the latter a term practically unknown in the Pakeha world until a couple of years ago).

If they were truly committed to the use of te reo, they would take the trouble to learn the language. I think that's the point Allan was trying to make.

Many people do make the effort, of course, and good for them. The rest of us should stick to English, since it's our lingua franca - the language everyone knows and understands. And the primary purpose of language, as Joe Bennett reminded us in a recent column for which he predictably got caned, is to communicate, not to signal cultural empathy or indulge in a form of verbal snobbery.

I like what I've seen of Allan. She's Maori and lesbian, but she doesn't appear to play the woke card and deserves better than to be dismissed as someone who got where she is simply by ticking fashionable diversity boxes.

She's a former KFC employee who got a law degree - big ups for that, as they say - and who represents a real electorate (East Coast), so earned her seat in Parliament in the honest, old-fashioned way. She also impressed a lot of people with the gutsy, no-nonsense way in which she confronted a life-threatening cancer. And though I know we're not supposed to judge books by their covers, she has an open, honest face. We now know she's blunt too, a refreshing quality lacking in the majority of politicians on both sides of the House who prefer to play it safe.

I tested my opinion of Allan on Clive Bibby, a politically alert resident of her electorate. He largely confirmed my impression, saying that Allan had served the electorate well and National would have a hard job finding someone to stand against her (this from a retired Tolaga Bay farmer whose political inclinations are firmly to the centre-right).

Another good friend and long-term East Coast voter - again, not a natural Labour supporter - agreed that Allan was well-liked in the electorate. The fact that Gisborne's population is 50 percent Maori probably helps, although her tribal roots (Ngati Ranginui and Tuwharetoa) lie outside the district.

Clive noted that Allan had resisted any temptation to serve as a flagbearer for the radical rainbow movement, which he thought was a smart tactic in conservative Gisborne. But he wasn't sure that her impressive performance would be enough to save her in the event of the expected anti-Labour backlash in 2023, and he hoped she would secure a good position on the Labour list.

He thinks Allan is marked for higher office - a view shared by political commentator Tim Watkin, who speculated this week that she and Michael Wood, who were both promoted in the "minor" (ha!) reshuffle, might be a Labour leadership team of the future.

Wood strikes me as a bit too polished and smiley for comfort (I'm reminded of a politician from a former era of whom it was said, "Behind the thin veneer there's a thin veneer"), but Allan has an aura of authenticity - an impression reinforced by her obvious exasperation with the virtue-signallers. If we must have Labour governments - and history suggests they're the yin to National's yang - then we could probably do worse.

Then again, maybe I'm so desperate for something to feel positive about that I'm reduced to searching for promising omens on the Left. Certainly the picture is pretty bleak everywhere else.

• Karl du Fresne has been in journalism for more than 50 years. He is now a freelance journalist and blogger living in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand.
• First published by Karl du Fresne. Republished with permission.

It is hoped the new translation will serve the next generation and be more accessible to young Maori second language speakers.

To date, the Gospel of Luke, two Epistles, Jonah, Genesis and Ruth have been completed in modern Te Reo Maori. It could take up to 12 years to complete the task.

Te Paipera Tapu was first published in 1868 with three further versions in 1889, 1925 and 1952.

The 1952 edition is the version most Maori communities and speakers have used for more than half a century.

In 2012 Bible Society published a reformatted edition of the 1952 text featuring paragraphs, macrons and punctuation to help readers understand the text.

However the current translation is very close to the King James Version," which in Bible-speak means it's quite formal language," said Brenda Crooks the Maori Bible Kaituitui Co-ordinator (Kaituitui means 'stitch together').

"The purpose of translating Scripture in the first place into mother tongues is to make it more accessible and to open up the treasure of scripture to all who want to seek it," she said.

"For Maori readers, we want to give them an informal translation that speaks to them in their own natural heart language,"

The project allows Crooks to combine the two passions of her life, Te Reo and the Bible.

She is one of only 5,000 people in New Zealand able to speak in the three official languages of New Zealand; Maori, English and Sign Language.

Maori is "the language of our country, it's beautiful, it's poetic and it's a window into this culture," said Crooks.

"There are things that can be expressed in Maori that can't be expressed in any other language."

Crooks said that even as a child she a desire to learn about Maori culture.

"I grew up on the West Coast of the South Island which is very European, so I believe my longing to learn about Maori culture was a God-given desire."

After completing a Bachelor of Arts in Maori Studies, Crooks joined Bible Society almost directly. She has been working on the Maori Bible ever since.

She spent 11 years modernising Te Paipera Tapu text with the addition of macrons, paragraphs and punctuation.

"When the current Maori translation was first printed in 1952, it didn't need macrons because there were native speakers. So marking the vowel length for today's readers is very helpful," she said.

More recently Crooks has worked on Taku Paipera, the first Maori Bible story book for children and Bible Society's first dedicated Maori Bible app.

The new translation of Te Paipera Tapu is now her main work.

Source

Supplied: New Zealand Bible Society

Following a Powhiri by students at Middle School West Auckland's Bilingual Unit, and an unveiling, Taku Paipera, were gifted to the 25 students.

Born and bred te Reo speaker Matt Hakiaha, who spoke at the Auckland proceedings, described as a "wonderful present."

Mr Hakiaha, a Kaumatua (respected elder) and on Laidlaw College's Maori Advisory Council said, " Taku Paipera is done in a language that belongs to us, it's a language that reveals our identity and it's a language that is the heartbeat of our culture."

"For Maori children, it's their language put to print, the stories of the Bible from thousands of years are now conveyed in their sacred language. It will help build their self-esteem and pride."

"This Bible will lead to the preservation of te Reo and the continuity of te Reo and also the use and continuance of a traditional language to a modern language."

"I've personally wanted this for 30 years, because growing up as a child in a Christian home, there was only an adult Bible."

Alex Hawea, Community and Whanua Support Manager at the school said, "Taku Paipera is brilliant." A dad to a 9, 7 and 2 year old, he commented, "It will be a lot easier to read these Bible stories to my kids without having to translate them back into Maori."

As part of the formal Maori welcome, Mr Hakiaha read one of his favourite Bible stories, the feeding of the 5,000, with smoked fish and bread specially brought in for the students.

"No matter what race or nationality you are, food is important to every culture. To Jesus food is important, there are no barriers with food. It was important to Jesus to see people were feed."

Mr Hakiaha said he was particularly impressed with the use of colour in the Bible, the clear layout, short sentences, paraphrasing and macrons. "The first thing I thought when I saw the Bible was how vibrant and colourful the pictures were and how this made it easy to read and contemporary."

Taku Paipera is available at Bible Society New Zealand $16.99 a copy. To order go to www.biblesociety.org.nz/shop or telephone 0800 424 253

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Supplied