Thursday 21 January 2010

WHALE NEEDS TO LEARN TE REO


We thought this was a lovely story this morning , the language that was used in the blockbuster movie Avatar was in fact partially based on Maori.
We think that's very very cool. It will help promote the language - which tourists who come here love to try out.
So we reckon that Whale has been playing with his dork - and unlike most of his yarns he got a serious fact wrong. Hana O'Regan is a woman and as a dusky mate of our said - a bloody stroppy one at that. She is a staunch advocate of Te Reo - a keeper of the linguistic fires of our people and we have enormous respect for her in that regard.

So she will not be a lone voice - in fact she echos the growing chorus of young Maori who look for new and innovative ways to preserve the Maori language which can now be translated by Google.

That James Cameron chose Maori as the basis for the Avatar language is something all New Zealanders should be proud of.

The tourist spin off for Aotearoa from this movie have yet to be exploited but any exposure will increase opportunities.

So Whale -tēnā rūkahu tēnā, you are wrong - there is no shame in the world doing a little korero Maori.

We will all be a little whakapai for it.

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