Transcript
Leading the call at a performance at Auckland Museum is drum master John Kiria.
He is a regular performer at the museum, but this time the former Māori Party candidate is celebrating Cook Islands language week.
Mr Kiria hails from the island of Aitutaki and he says the language is his identity, but music is his conduit.
"Back in the days there was no telephone, no mobile. The using of the drums, the using of the conch shells to signal or to call a meeting. So its the using of the drums, the using of the chants, I guess it's putting to use what god has placed us with."
About 62,000 people in New Zealand's Pacific population are of Cook Islands heritage, and just one in eight speak Cook Islands Māori or Te Reo Māori Kuki 'Āirani
In 2013 there were 8,121 speakers of the language in New Zealand.
"Te reo, Cook Islands, it gives you that mana. Basically it's the identity really, it's where you come from and how it came to be. And the journey that you go through it in making sure the language doesn't fade away, that it gets passed on from generation, to generation, to generation."
And if music is Mr Kiria's way of sharing te reo with people, Barbara Afitu's is through taonga.
This week an array of treasures from the Cook Islands have been rolled out at Auckland Museum to celebrate the language.
They are part of the Pacific Collection Access Project, which manages around 30,000 items from 13 Pacific Islands.
"So, these are incredible."
She's showing off a pair of traditional reef sandals. They're woven from tough fibres and they look sturdier than your average pair of jandals.
"And so, before you had all the $5 Warehouse rubber reef shoes, this is what they actually made from natural materials in the Cooks."
Ms Afitu says future generations will have to learn through their eyes rather than their hands, before passing that knowledge on.
"We've had some elders come in and even they were saying that growing up they thought they heard about some of these treasures but had never sighted them until they came to the museum."
Cook Islands Language Week finishes up on Saturday.
