It's never too late to learn te reo, actor and intimacy coach Jennifer Ward-Lealand tells Anika Moa in It's Personal.
Ward-Lealand says she had the sound and feel of te reo Māori in her ears from a young age, but as a middle-class Pākehā girl, she did not officially grasp the language until much later.
"It really was in 2000 when my husband [Michael Hurst] was directing a film called Jubilee, with a lot of really terrific Māori actors. And it was his birthday, and I went out to set to celebrate, and all the Māori actors got together, gave a waiata and a ngā mihi and then, ka huri rātou i a mātou - they turned to us, and we couldn't respond.
"It was like every waiata I ever knew went out of my head, and it was then that I went, 'No, this is insane'.
"There were all these stories around me. This is a living culture around me, and I don't know these stories and I need to educate myself."
In 2008, while working in theatre six nights a week and juggling two young children, Ward-Lealand enrolled in night classes for four years, gently working on her knowledge.
Jennifer Ward-Lealand in studio with Anika Moa for an episode of It's Personal. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
"It's not a race, and I'd keep looking up at that maunga of te reo and thinking, 'oh hika mā' (good heavens!).
"The big receive for me was understanding how much the language was connected to the natural world. So that was a real in for me, and it's something when I'm talking to Pākehā audiences, it's actually all around us, te reo is all around us."
That is especially prevalent in the kupu whakarite (metaphors and similes), whakataukī (proverbs) used within te reo Māori, Ward-Leland explains.
"The way that the characteristics of the birds, of the trees, of the sky, of the clouds of the land are metaphors for the characteristics and behaviours of people, and I find those just so beautiful.
"They're available, and they're not far away from anybody who lives in this country. To look at that bird, or hear that bird and go 'there's a beautiful singer - me he korokoro tūī (like the throat of a tūī)."
Even so, Ward-Lealand says her te reo Māori journey has not been without its challenges.
"There was a certain level of terror every day when I'd go [to class] ... I was just scared as anybody."
While she encourages everyone to learn te reo, she acknowledges that herself and other Pākehā do not have the same trauma as Māori do around learning their language.
"It's often what I'm saying when I'm speaking with Pākehā audiences, 'just know that when you walk into that room, you don't have the same baggage' ... and to be very conscious of that."
In 2017, Ward-Lealand was gifted the te reo name Te Atamira (The Stage) very casually, over a morning tea at a conference when approached by Sir Timoti Kāretu and the late Dr Te Wharehuia Milroy, both esteemed rangatira known for their expertise in te reo Māori.
"I feel really unworthy. But look, since then, I've just seen the thinking around that, because people like that don't do those things on a whim. Kua takoto te manuka, they laid down that challenge."
"Te Atamira is my name. Te Atamira is the place I work, and Te Atamira is also the platform I use to champion te reo Māori. They knew that by giving me that name, that I would use the stage for the reo."
In 2020 she was named New Zealander of the Year for her work in the performing arts as well as her commitment to te reo Māori, demonstrating the way to live an authentic bi-cultural society.
"I don't consider myself above everybody or anything like that. I just consider myself ... one of the people in line who need to work for the reo, that's what I consider my job. Even the things that I'm scared about Anika, I would do it for the reo, because I feel like I've had a bigger calling.
"If I get a MC job, I'm going to start everything with a mihi. The first language that should be heard is the reo taketake." (the indigenous language)
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