Rotorua Reorua: Bilingual Rotorua

On 11 August 2017, it was announced that Rotorua would become New Zealand’s very first bilingual city. The launch of Rotorua Reorua meant that the city of Rotorua was now set to become a place where the learning of both Māori and English was supported and encouraged.

In 1880, an agreement, known as the Fenton Agreement, was signed between Ngāti Whakaue and the Crown. Ngāti Whakaue gifted lands to the Crown to build the city of Rotorua. The people who signed the Fenton Agreement surely hoped that the partnership would make sure Te Arawa heritage was preserved and that te reo Māori would have the same value as English. This has not always happened. Even though Rotorua is proudly known as a centre for Māori culture and manaakitanga (hospitality), te reo Māori is not spoken as much as English. Many whānau who once spoke Māori at home began to lose their reo (language) because they were encouraged to only use English at school and work.

Te Tatau o Te Arawa is a special board of 14 people, which was established to help guide a partnership between Te Arawa people and the Rotorua Lakes Council. With help from Council and Te Puni Kōkiri, they came up with the Rotorua Reorua plan to try and grow the use of te reo Māori and protect the unique heritage of the Te Arawa rohe (district).

There are lots of things the people living in Rotorua can do to help Rotorua become a truly bilingual city. They could use apps like ‘Kupu’ or ‘Daily Te Reo Māori’ to learn a few Māori words and practise them with their whānau. They could use websites like ‘Te Aka Māori Dictionary’, take online courses, borrow some books from Rotorua Library, Te Aka Mauri, or play some simple games together to start to learn te reo Māori.

Tamariki (children) could help their parents and whānau learn how to pronounce local Māori place names correctly, or they could try using common Māori words instead of the English versions. For example, maunga in place of mountain. Rangatahi (youth) could even encourage their schools, clubs and workplaces to include Māori words in their signage.

This story comes from the original Great Te Arawa Stories website created by Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru (NPeW) Education Trust in 2018. To ensure consistency, minimal updates were made to the text before it was transferred to this new site.