It is a rare Saturday in Otaki that sees my three beautiful girls playing nicely together and my two sons engrossed in their own worlds. My oldest son is obviously in a haka mood. Various war cries replay through his head often, and the floor echoes with the bass thump of his heavy feet stomping out some action. The girls are playing Bingo in the room – in Te Reo Māori. Now that’s the vision at play for sure! They use so much Te Reo when I remember not to beat them up about not using Te Reo! My grandmother told her children, who are native speakers, that you should teach your children to speak Māori, so that you always have someone to laugh with.
I have very happy memories of all my uncles and aunties laughing hilariously together with my Grandmother, all speaking Māori. My mother never taught me, and I remember trying to have conversations with her, as an undergraduate student ‘new’ to te reo. Lol, she looked at me with my grammatically correct sentences (they were back then), my non-rolling-off-the-tongue very enunciated words and probably wondered what the hell I was saying! The fact that I had a very ‘eff’ sounding ‘wh’ for a pair of very Northern taringa would have been an onslaught and a half too. The very beautiful and distinct Te Aupouri ‘hu-wah’akarongo versus my learnt ‘f’akarongo still makes me cringe and laugh when I think of my Mum.
The house is clean for once too, that is especially rare on a Saturday! Usually we are out at some sport or another and cleaning has to wait till we get home, or Sunday, or whenever. But today is rare and just peaceful. It wont last but while it does, I will sit back and enjoy my picture perfect children and thank god for each of their gorgeous selves.
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