Te Wiki o te Reo Māori: history and phrases

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori is Māori Language Week, New Zealand’s yearly celebration of te reo Māori, held every September in the week of 14 September: the day in 1972 when a petition signed by about 30,000 people asked Parliament to have Māori taught in schools. In 2026 it ran from 14 to 20 September, with the focus Tāone Reo Māori ‘Te Reo Towns’. The name is plain Māori: wiki ‘week’ is a loanword from English, and te reo Māori ‘the Māori language’. Its slogan is Kia kaha te reo Māori! ‘Let’s make the Māori language strong!’ This guide explains where the week came from, when it is held, what its slogans and themes mean, the Māori Language Moment when more than a million people used te reo at noon, and the phrases and ideas Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, the Māori Language Commission, suggests for taking part.

Updated 18 October 2026 · 12 min read

Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Māori examples play Papa Reo, the te reo Māori voice made by Te Hiku Media from recordings of native speakers.

Māori Language Week at a glance

Where Māori Language Week came from

By the 1970s te reo Māori was in steep decline. NZ History records that Māori moved to the cities in large numbers after the Second World War, into schools where Māori was unknown to the teachers, and that by the 1980s fewer than 20% of Māori knew enough te reo to be regarded as native speakers. The numbers, then and now, are in how many people speak Māori.

The 1972 Māori language petition

On 14 September 1972 a petition was delivered to Parliament which, in NZ History’s words, “challenged politicians to prioritise saving te reo Māori”. It had gathered 30,000 signatures from across Aotearoa (Te Taura Whiri says “more than 30,000”) and asked for Māori language to be taught in schools. It came out of the work of three groups of young Māori: Ngā Tamatoa, an Auckland-based activist group whose name NZ History translates as “The Young Warriors”; the Te Reo Māori Society at Victoria University of Wellington; and Te Huinga Rangatahi, the New Zealand Māori Students’ Association. It was carried to Parliament with the support of many kaumātua, led by Te Ouenuku Rene of Ngāti Toa.

Hana Te Hemara Jackson (Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Raukawa) of Ngā Tamatoa, one of the organisers, presented it. In the submission that went with it she called speaking Māori “the only real symbol of Maori identity” and wrote: “It is our link with our tipuna.” Te Taura Whiri says the petition was handed over at 12 noon, a detail that returned in 2020 (below).

From Māori Language Day to Māori Language Week

To mark the petition, 14 September was declared Māori Language Day, and NZ History says that three years later this was expanded to a week: “Every year since 1975 New Zealand has marked Māori Language Week.” Te Taura Whiri tells it in the same shape, adding that “the seeds of a full week dedicated to te reo Māori were planted in 1974”, and that “by 1975 Te Wiki had found its footing”. In Māori, NZ History’s own telling dates the petition te 14 o Mahuru, 1972 ‘14 September 1972’.

The Māori Language Act 1987 and Te Taura Whiri

The petition was the start, not the end. In 1985 the WAI 11 claim to the Waitangi Tribunal argued that te reo was a taonga ‘treasure’ the Crown was obliged to protect under the Treaty of Waitangi, and the Tribunal’s recommendations were met by the Māori Language Act 1987. That Act made Māori an official language of New Zealand and set up the Māori Language Commission. At its first meeting the board replaced the translated name Te Komihana mō te Reo Māori with the one it chose itself: Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori ‘the rope that binds the language’. Its founding chair, Sir Kīngi Ihaka, said the rope that binds us all together is our language, “a rope that is woven by each tribe and each person to be strong forever”. Te Taura Whiri points out that the week was already running more than a decade before either of those 1987 milestones. The Māori Language Act 2016 has since replaced the 1987 Act.

Fifty years on: 2022 and 2025

In 2022, Te Taura Whiri writes, thousands of New Zealanders gathered to mark 50 years since the petition, which it calls Te Pētihana, was presented on the steps of Parliament. In 2025 the week itself turned 50, marked with an anniversary version of its hei tiki logo. Over that half-century Te Taura Whiri traces the week from “a mainly Māori audience and radio jingles in the 70s, protest marches in the 80s, ad campaigns and bilingual weather reports in the 90s” to parades for all New Zealanders; by 2019, it says, more than 30,000 people marched in seven parades across the country.

Where the accounts differ

The published accounts of the petition agree on the date, the number of signatures and what it asked for. They differ on who should be named for it.

McCaffery also writes that the society set the first week in July, in the middle of a school term, because 14 September then fell in the school holidays, and that the week returned to 14 September once the school year moved to four terms.

When is Māori Language Week?

Today Te Wiki o te Reo Māori is always in September and always includes 14 September, the anniversary of the petition. It has not always been. Wikipedia’s list of past dates shows it in July from at least 2004 to 2016; in 2017 the Education Gazette announced it for 11–17 September, and it has stayed in September since.

From 2017 to 2023 the week ran Monday to Sunday around 14 September, so in 2023 it was 11–17 September. Since 2024 it has begun on 14 September itself, whatever the day: Te Taura Whiri announced 2024’s dates with the note that the petition’s 52nd anniversary fell on a Saturday. Which pattern 2027 follows is for Te Taura Whiri to announce, at reomaori.co.nz; it confirmed 2024’s in April that year.

The slogan and the themes, and what they mean

Each year’s campaign has a theme, and the themes are among the most useful Māori phrases a learner can borrow: short, correct and seen everywhere that week.

Kia kaha te reo Māori

Kia kaha ‘be strong’ is well understood in New Zealand English as “be strong”, and Te Taura Whiri explains that “we often talk about languages as if they are people”, so Kia kaha te reo Māori means “Let’s make the Māori language strong.” It was the theme in 2018 and has stayed as the campaign’s sign-off and logo. Te Aka explains the grammar: kia before a verb “indicates that it is desirable for something to occur”, and kaha is to be strong, able, energetic. Te Aka’s own example uses the same frame, Kia kaha te mahi! ‘Work energetically!’ Swap in ora ‘alive, well’ and you have the 2017 theme, Kia ora te reo Māori ‘Let the Māori language live’, the same words as the greeting.

Ake ake ake, and Tāone Reo Māori

Te Taura Whiri’s theme since 2024 is Ake ake ake – A Forever Language. It glosses ake ake ake as “forever and ever” or “everlasting”, and Te Aka gives the phrase (spelling the first word āke) as “forever, evermore, on and on”, with the example “for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory for evermore”. In 2026 the focus was Tāone Reo Māori ‘Te Reo Towns’, with communities invited to make their own town a place where te reo is seen and heard. Tāone is a loanword from English, “town, city, urban area” in Te Aka.

Earlier themes

Three of them show a grammar point worth knowing. Arohatia, whāngaia and ākina are the passive forms of aroha ‘love’, whāngai ‘feed, nurture’ and āki ‘encourage, urge on’, with the endings Te Aka lists for each (-tia, -a, -na). A passive verb at the start of a phrase gives a command with the thing acted on as its subject, so Arohatia te reo is, word for word, let the language be loved.

The Māori Language Moment

In 2020 COVID-19 cancelled the parades, and Te Taura Whiri asked a million people to celebrate te reo at the same moment instead: at 12pm on Monday 14 September, the date and time the petition had been delivered in 1972. It was called Te Wā Tuku Reo Māori, the Māori Language Moment: wā is time or a moment, and tuku is to release, send or let go. People were asked to speak, sing or read in te reo, wherever they were; RNZ reported that one in five New Zealanders registered, and Te Taura Whiri says more than a million took part, which it calls the largest single celebration of the language in history. It named every one of them joint winner of its Supreme Māori Language Award for 2020.

The Moment was held again at noon on 14 September 2021, when Waatea News reported that more than a million people signed up after a glitch in the booking system was fixed. Te Puni Kōkiri calls the week central to the Crown’s Māori language strategy, Maihi Karauna, whose goal is a million speakers of te reo by 2040. As the Māori Language Commissioner, Professor Rawinia Higgins, put it in 2020, “To safeguard te reo we want 1 million Māori language speakers by 2040 but we want to start in 2020: even if only for a moment.”

Phrases for Māori Language Week

Te Taura Whiri groups its ideas for the week under six verbs, and they are the words to know for taking part. Each is a verb in Te Aka:

For the words themselves, the everyday greetings and replies are in Māori greetings and the rest of what people say all year in common Māori phrases; this page keeps to what belongs to the week. That week, the phrases you will see most are its own: Kia kaha te reo Māori! to sign off a message or a post, Te Wiki o te Reo Māori on every poster, and Ake ake ake on the logo. Te Taura Whiri’s own suggestions start smaller: greet everyone you see with kia ora, and start a video call with mōrena ‘good morning’.

How to take part

Te Taura Whiri’s ideas run from a poster in a window to a whole day in te reo. Among them:

• At work: start lunch or a meeting with a karakia (there are short ones, with translations, in karakia for meetings), add the campaign banner to your email signature, use the campaign’s video-call backgrounds, and open a newsletter or news bulletin in te reo.
• At school: sing together, play te reo Māori quiz games, read Māori books aloud, and watch the Disney films dubbed into Māori.
• Online: change your profile picture to the hei tiki logo, share why te reo matters to you, and join Te Taura Whiri’s lunchtime webinars, which ran over four days in 2026.
• In song: learn the national anthem in Māori (Te Taura Whiri suggests Hinewehi Mohi’s 1999 Rugby World Cup performance; the words and their meaning are in the New Zealand national anthem in Māori), or a song everyone knows, such as Pōkarekare Ana.
• In your town: in 2026 Te Mātāwai and Te Taura Whiri opened an interactive map at reomaori.co.nz for registering local events, offered a logo with each town’s name (for showing support, not for making money), and funded local events through a Te Reo Towns Activation Fund; Wellington, Rotorua and Christchurch planned parades and launch events for Monday 14 September.

Te Taura Whiri’s logos are for non-commercial use only. Its message for the week is that the language belongs to everyone who uses it: “te reo Māori is for everyone”, in the words of its chief executive, Ngahiwi Apanui-Barr.

Going further

The week is a good time to start, and the words in this guide are a good first handful: kōrero, waiata, ako, kia kaha and kia ora are all in the course’s vocabulary. Our own free te reo Māori course teaches them, with the grammar of kia and the passive, one lesson a day, for the other fifty-one weeks too.

Sources

1. NZ History (Manatū Taonga): Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori – Māori Language Week, introduction (every year since 1975; Te Taura Whiri, Human Rights Commission and Te Puni Kōkiri), including community comments by John McCaffery (2025, 2026)
2. NZ History: History of the Māori language (urbanisation; fewer than 20% native speakers by the 1980s; the three groups; Māori language day to week in 1975)
3. NZ History: Te taenga mai o te petihana reo Māori – Arrival of the Māori language petition, 14 September 1972 (30,000 signatures; Te Ouenuku Rene; Hana Te Hemara Jackson’s submission; Māori Language Day)
4. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori: Māori Language Week (seeds planted in 1974; 2022 and 2025 anniversaries; Kia kaha te reo Māori; the week’s history decade by decade)
5. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori: Our story (the petition at 12 noon; WAI 11; the Māori Language Act 1987; the name; parades; the 2020 Moment)
6. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori: Legislation (WAI 11, 1985; Māori Language Acts 1987 and 2016)
7. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori: Te mana o te reo Māori timeline (1972: Hana Jackson and Lee Smith; 1975: the first Māori Language Week)
8. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori: Our logos (Ake ake ake; Tāone Reo Māori; Kia kaha te reo Māori hei tiki; the 50th anniversary logo; non-commercial use)
9. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, press release via Scoop: Dates Confirmed For Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2024 (14–21 September 2024)
10. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, press release via Scoop: 200,000 Sign Up For Historic Māori Language Moment (2020; Rawinia Higgins)
11. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, reomaori.co.nz: About the movement (more than 1 million at the Māori Language Moment, 12pm Monday 14 September)
12. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, reomaori.co.nz: Ideas (kōrero, whakarongo, ako, tākaro, pānui, waiata)
13. Te Mātāwai: ‘Te Reo Towns’ campaign puts communities at the heart of Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori 2026 (9 June 2026)
14. Te Mātāwai: Aotearoa shifts up another gear for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2026 (14 August 2026)
15. Te Puni Kōkiri: Join Te Wiki o te Reo Māori movement (Te Wā Tuku Reo Māori; Maihi Karauna)
16. Meriana Johnsen, RNZ, republished by Asia Pacific Report: One million New Zealanders celebrate te reo Māori at the same time (14 September 2020)
17. Waatea News: Million winners in te reo Māori award (26 November 2020)
18. Waatea News: Māori Language Moment (14 September 2021)
19. Education Gazette: Kia ora te reo Māori – Māori Language Week 2017 (11–17 September 2017)
20. Wikipedia: Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (list of past dates and themes)
21. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: wiki (week)
22. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: reo
23. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: kia
24. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: kaha
25. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: āke, ake, ake
26. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tāone
27. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: wā
28. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tuku
29. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: aroha
30. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: whāngai
31. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: āki
32. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: kōrero
33. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: whakarongo
34. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: ako
35. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tākaro
36. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: pānui
37. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: waiata
38. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: manaakitanga
39. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: hapori
40. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: kāinga