The words that live in our studio
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori gives us an opportunity to celebrate, learn and share te reo Māori.
But here at Korowai, these kupu don't belong to one week.
They are part of our everyday.
You will hear kākahu when we speak about clothing and garments. Huruhuru when feathers are being selected at the cutting table. Tamariki and mokopuna when we talk about the generations coming after us.
You will hear manaakitanga in the way we talk about caring for the people who walk through our doors, and whanaungatanga in the relationships that have grown around this little studio.
And, of course, you will hear korowai.
It is a word that has become deeply connected to our own story.
My journey began through wanting to reconnect — with te reo Māori, with weaving, with whakapapa, and with something I could pass on to my own tamariki. In 2018, while studying te reo Māori and learning to weave, I made my first piece for my youngest daughter.
I didn't know then where that journey would lead.
A year later, on Waitangi Day 2019, I stood at our first market.
Today, that journey has become a Māori-led, whānau-owned creative studio, with our whānau and team working together every day to create pieces that travel to people all over Aotearoa and around the world.
And te reo has travelled with us.
It lives in the names we give our designs.
Aramoana. Pātiki. Poutama. Niho Taniwha.
It lives in the conversations we have with customers about their whakapapa, their whānau and the moments they are preparing for.
It lives in the simple everyday things too — scissors on the table, needles beside the sewing machine, waiata playing while we work, a mihi when somebody arrives, and a harirū between people meeting for the first time.
These might seem like small things.
But language becomes normal when we use it.
Not only on formal occasions.
Not only when we know every kupu.
Not only during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.
In the everyday.
There is still so much for us to learn, and we don't pretend to know everything. But perhaps that is part of the beauty of te reo Māori too — there is always another kupu to learn, another meaning to understand more deeply, and another opportunity to use what we know.
For us, this is also about tuku iho.
What are we passing down?
What will our tamariki hear so often that it simply becomes normal to them?
What words will our mokopuna one day use without hesitation because the generations before them chose to keep speaking them?
That matters to us.
So this Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, we're opening the doors to our wharetoi a little wider and sharing some of the kupu that live here.
Some you may already know.
Some might be new.
Learn one. Use one. Share one.
And when Te Wiki o te Reo Māori finishes, keep using it.
Because te reo Māori doesn't only belong to this week.
It belongs in our homes, our workplaces, our businesses, our creative spaces and our everyday lives.
Kia kaha te reo Māori.