Mike McRoberts Reclaims Te Reo Māori After Seven-Year Journey

Award-winning broadcaster Mike McRoberts has shared his personal journey of reclaiming his ancestral language, Te Reo Māori, in his newly released book, Speaking My Language: Te Kōrero i Tōku Reo. McRoberts details the challenges he faced prior to fully immersing himself in the language in 2023. Reflecting on his past, he wrote, “I felt the intense whakamā of not being able to speak te reo” and acknowledged “an emptiness born of a disconnect from my Māoritanga.”

McRoberts has ancestral ties to Ngāti Kahungunu o te Wairoa and the Pūtahi marae near Frasertown. He recalled family trips back to Wairoa during Christmas, which provided him with some connection to his cultural roots. “If it hadn’t been for those trips, I could have gone through my whole childhood and adolescence in Ōtautahi (Christchurch) without ever having heard a word of Māori spoken,” he said.

His father, along with other Māori from Wairoa, moved to Christchurch for trades training. McRoberts noted the changes he observed in his family during their visits back home. “Whenever they’d go back, they actually looked different, you know, they ironed their jeans for a start. You go to Wairoa, who the hell irons their jeans?” This sense of cultural dislocation lingered with him. Though he had a fulfilling childhood among the Māori community in Christchurch, he often felt he was missing something essential when he returned to Wairoa.

“If the opportunity had been there for me to do kapa haka or to learn te reo Māori, I know I would have done it,” he explained. “It’s hard not to carry that bitterness forever. At some point, you’ve just got to say, ‘ok well it wasn’t there,’ get off your ass and do something now, and that’s what I did a few years ago.”

McRoberts acknowledged the challenge of learning Te Reo Māori, especially when considering the broader societal anxieties surrounding the language. “Having come to my language so late in life and having felt that anxiety around the language and all things te ao Māori for so much of my life, I kind of understand where a lot of our population is coming from,” he said. He expressed empathy for those feeling apprehensive about engaging with the language, noting, “Once you get into it, it’s always given with aroha.”

His formal journey began when he enrolled in language classes at Whakaata Māori several years ago. McRoberts found the structured environment of the akomanga (classroom) empowering, but he did not continue after the course concluded. “I could have gone on; I had enough confidence then to have gone to Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and done night classes or whatever, but I didn’t. But I say in the book it’s still something that, it actually tears me up a bit that I wasted seven years,” he reflected.

In 2023, he made a significant commitment to his language acquisition by enrolling in a rūmaki, or full immersion course, at Te Wānanga Takiura. This decision came while he continued to read the 6 PM news, albeit with reduced hours. “There were many times throughout that year I thought I should have just taken the year off the news,” he admitted. “In the end, it wasn’t a hard decision… I had to do it.”

Learning a new language comes with its own set of challenges, and for Māori individuals learning Te Reo as a second language, the obstacles can be even more pronounced. McRoberts expressed his struggles with feelings of inadequacy, saying, “Why is it so hard? Why am I so useless? And if I am useless, what does that mean about my identity? You go through massive anxiety.”

Despite his past successes in various endeavors, he found himself in unfamiliar territory. “This is going to sound arrogant, but I was used to winning. Everything I’d done in life, I’d been really successful at, and then all of a sudden I was at the bottom of my class and hanging on. Rūmaki reo literally means ‘to drown,’ and I was drowning alright.”

Today, McRoberts feels more confident engaging in whaikōrero at a pōwhiri or mihi whakatau. However, he acknowledges that conversational fluency in Te Reo still requires time and patience. “It’s ok because I’m in no rush. I know I’m going to be learning this for the rest of my life,” he concluded.

Through his journey, Mike McRoberts not only reclaims his language but also inspires others to explore their cultural heritage and embrace the learning process, regardless of the challenges that may arise.