Ake ake ake – A Forever Language

By Engineering New Zealand 12 Sep 2025

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori is an annual celebration of te reo Māori, an official language of Aotearoa New Zealand. Find out how you can incorporate the language into your everyday.

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori kicks off on Rātapu 14 o Hepetema (Sunday 14 September), marking 53 years since the Māori Language Petition was presented to Parliament – and the 50th anniversary of the celebration.

Te Wiki 2025 is focused around ‘Ake ake ake – A Forever Language’. This powerful phrase captures the resilience, adaptability and endurance of te reo Māori. It symbolises the unwavering commitment of New Zealanders to keep learning, speaking and cherishing te reo Māori for generations to come.

Celebrate with us

Join the important journey to embrace Te Ao Māori (Māori worldview) and te reo Māori into the engineering profession.

We believe it’s important that te reo is celebrated not only during Te Wiki o te Reo, but every day. You too, can make a commitment to celebrate and incorporate te reo in your every day with us.

Our commitment to incorporating te reo Māori

We’ve committed to using 16 kupu instead of their English equivalent to ensure we incorporate te reo into our communications with you.

More kupu will continue to be added to our commitment and our hope is that you too will have the confidence to give te reo a go.

You’ll notice that we’ll start to avoid using the accompanying English equivalents of te reo in our communications as you become more familiar with the kupu.

Have a go at familiarising yourself with the below kupu, then keep an eye out for these words in our communications. Increase your confidence with using the below kupu this week and every day.

Our kupu commitment

Te reo	English definition
Te reo Kia ora	English definition Hello (informal)
Te reo Mahi	English definition (noun) work, job, employment, trade (work), practice, occupation, activity, exercise, operation, function. (Is also a verb).
Te reo Hui	English definition (noun) gathering, meeting, assembly, seminar, conference.
Te reo Kōrero	English definition (noun) a conversation, discussion or meeting.
Te reo Motu	English definition (noun) island, country, land, nation, clump of trees, ship - anything separated or isolated.
Te reo Aotearoa	English definition New Zealand
Te reo Whānau	English definition (noun) extended family, family group, a familiar term of address to a number of people - the primary economic unit of traditional Māori society. In the modern context the term is sometimes used to include friends who may not have any kinship ties to other members.
Te reo Awa	English definition (noun) river, stream, creek, canal, gully, gorge, groove, furrow.
Te reo Moana	English definition (noun) sea
Te reo Kai	English definition (noun) food
Te reo Wai	English definition (noun) water
Te reo Waiata	English definition (noun) song or chant (is also a verb)
Te reo Tamariki	English definition (noun) children
Te reo Hoa	English definition (noun) friend, companion, mate, partner, spouse, ally.
Te reo Tane/Tāne	English definition (noun) man/men
Te reo Wahine/Wāhine	English definition (noun) woman, female, lady, wife/plural form is wāhine.

Te reo Māori success in STEM

To ensure ākonga Māori (Māori students) feel represented in the industry, the Wonder Project, Engineering New Zealand’s free schools programme, is working to champion the use of te reo Māori across their kaupapa (programme).

The Wonder Project now offer their flagship Rocket Challenge in te reo Māori, have developed a new Water Challenge embedded in Mātauranga Māori and Western STEM, and have committed to their own set of kupu Māori to use instead of English.

As a result, they’ve seen a 500% increase in STEM professionals reporting they use their Wonder Project volunteering experience to practice te reo Māori.

Whether it be in the classroom, in emails, or in everyday kōrero, the Wonder rōpū are encouraged by their community’s willingness to honour their kupu commitment and celebrate te reo Māori within STEM learning.

The Wonder Project Rōpū kupu commitment

Te reo	English equivalent
Te reo Ākonga	English equivalent Student
Te reo Kaiako	English equivalent Teacher
Te reo Rōpū	English equivalent Team
Te reo Hapori	English equivalent Community
Te reo Kupu	English equivalent Word
Te reo Pātai	English equivalent Question
Te reo Mahi	English equivalent Work
Te reo Pānui	English equivalent Read
Te reo Kōrero	English equivalent Speak
Te reo Whakarongo	English equivalent Listen

How will you give te reo a go?

Whether it’s trying out a new greeting, sharing resources with your whānau or colleagues, or simply weaving a little more reo into your day – there are plenty of ways to give te reo Māori a go. Get started by trying out kupu like kōrero (conversation), kaipūkaha (engineer) and mātauranga (knowledge) – and follow along with the video below.