Tātai Aho Rau Core Education's work on teen cyber skills won it a top award at the Ngā Tohu Reho Māori (Māori Language Awards). Photo: Supplied
A not-for-profit that is helping tamariki to be safe online is among those recognised at this year's Ngā Tohu Reo Māori (Māori Language Awards).
Tātai Aho Rau Core Education picked up the te ao matihiko - digital award for its Pūkenga ā-Ipurangi Aotearoa cyber skills programme on Friday.
Tātai Aho Rau content specialist Anahera McGregor said the team was approached by Australia-based cyber security education firm Grok Academy to create resources to teach cyber skills to tamariki and rangatahi. Those were delivered in both te reo and English.
"E mihi ana ki Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, e mihi ana hoki ki te reo Māori ko ia te rangatira o tēnei kaupapa. [We're] really humbled, really honoured and really proud of the mahi that's been done to get us to this point," she said.
A lot of tamariki were always online and the hope was that the programme would help them to be safe, she said.
Once the programme was brought to New Zealand, the challenge for the team was to make sure it would reflect te ao Māori and te reo Māori.
"We largely had to look at what they had in the Australian curriculum, bring it here to Aotearoa and think about 'Ok what might be different between Australia and Aotearoa in our curriculum?', and then what's the other layer that we had to add for it to be conducive to Māori speaking audiences and within our Māori medium curriculum."
Part of that involved creating a glossary of new words for cybersecurity terms, including mūrere (hack), whakamuna (encrypt) and kīanga hipa (passphrase).
It was quite fun for the team to come up with words that made the best fit and still feel authentically te reo, McGregor said.
"We want all of our ākonga, our tamariki, our mokopuna to be able to access all the things of the world through te reo Māori especially those tamariki, those rangatahi that are learning in Māori medium spaces, we want to ensure they have total and equitable access."
There was still quite a lot of investment that needed to happen for te reo Māori to be felt across Aotearoa in all spaces and all sectors, she said.
"To be able to invest in this kaupapa has huge benefits to our kids so they can not only be safe but they can do that in the way that is important to them and that is through the use of te reo Māori."
Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori chief executive Ngahiwi Apanui said each of the award recipients showed "staunch advocacy, innovation, leadership and vast efforts for te reo Māori.
"Beyond this, there are huge numbers of other kaupapa that are also doing this mahi."
Rangimarie Naida Glavish was among those receiving Lifetime Achievement Awards. Photo: RNZ / Leigh-Marama McLachlan
Full list of Ngā Tohu Reo Māori recipients:
- Tū Rangatira - Supreme Award: Ariana Stevens
- Te Ao Matihiko - Digital: Pūkenga ā-Ipurangi (Tātai Aho Rau Core Education)
- Hapori - Community: Hauā Reo, Hauā Tangata (TupuOra Ltd & Ngati Hauā Iwi Trust)
- Mātauranga - Education: TupuOra Ltd: Te mātauranga kia Māori
- Te Ao Pāpāho - Media: Aukaha News
- Rangatahi - Youth: Ngā Tapuwai ā-Taraika
- Pakihi - Business: Rangiata, Sky TV
- Rāngai Tūmatanui - Public Sector: Te Kaunihera o Pōneke - Wellington City Council
- Mahi Toi - Arts: Arataua Media
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Rangimarie Naida Glavish, Tini Molyneux and Kuini Moehau Reedy
Each recipient was awarded a specially designed taonga in the form of the hei tiki, created by Vaka.
