Connection lessons + a cry with Mike McRoberts
+ more Māori news, events, media, and kōrero to keep your cultural kete full.
Tohu Wines have our backs again as sponsor this week. Show them some love e te whānau!
Tohu is the world’s first Māori-owned wine company. Our wines are crafted with aroha as a gift from our land. Browse our collection here.
🌖 Maramataka/Māori lunar calendar phase: Ari - a good night for spearing eels.
We use the Maramataka Māori page to keep up - every region varies.
🗣️ Phrase of the wiki: Tāku tongarerewa/My precious
sourced from reomāori.
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3 Oct, 2025
Mōrena e te whānau,
Nau mai, hoki mai ki Te Arawhata, the newsletter making it easier for us all to stay connected with—and just ruddy enjoy—te ao Māori ia wiki, ia wiki.
Lined up for you this week;
talk of the tāone catch-ups feat. NO lobby groups
kaupapa Māori events, one a little salty
kete filling media recs for your roro/brain and ngākau/heart
a woolly deal o te wiki
Kātahi/Then in kōrero, we’re talking connection journey lessons (and having a tangi/cry) with Mike McRoberts.
Kua rite?/Ready? Reheko/Let’s go.
P.s. if you’re a fan of Te Arawhata and want to help us keep this thing going, please consider joining our paid subscribers community for as little as $1.50 a wiki. We’ll reward you with exclusive discounts and LOADS of good karma in thanks!
🗞️ news to keep us in the know
Toitū te Tiriti have made it uber clear they aren’t a lobby group for Te Pāti Māori.
The new novel by Airana Ngarewa is out and yes, it uses the c word.
Māori fishing influencers are taking pāua limits into their own ringaringa/hands. Will you?
New series, ‘Once were… GARDENERS’ is about to have us all digging deep.
Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po is travelling for some serious business in Dubai (and some not so serious time with her bro in Perth).
‘Kāore ngā murare katoa e ngaro ana,’ ⬅️ turns out Te Taura Whiri are LOTR nerds too.
🤗 events cos nothing beats time kanohi ki te kanohi/face to face
TĀMAKI MAKAURAU:
SALT SESSION - Kōrero, Kai, & Wai
1 Nov I The Leigh Sawmill Cafe I @saltaotearoa
Wāhine mā over 18, join the Salt crew for a snorkel at Goat Island followed by an EPIC speaker panel, discussing ‘Hauora and the moana’ at Leigh sawmill.
ROTORUA:
Kākahutia te Ao - A showcase of excellence in kākahu Māori
25 Oct I Te Puia
Come to witness a number of kākahu tūpuna including a 100 year old kahu huruhuru usually housed at Te Whare Taonga o Rotorua!
HAKATERE/ASHBURTON:
Reo Māori Language Group
Tuesdays I He Waka Tapu I @hewakatapu
Build your connection to te aō Māori and boost your confidence through fun, interactive lessons designed to make learning easy and enjoyable.
MANAWATŪ:
Kawhe & Kōrero for Māori Businesses
8 Oct I Double Shotz I @doubleshotzcafe
A chance for local Māori business owners to connect, share wins and challenges, and see how we can tautoko each other to grow stronger pakihi and communities.
*Got an event you’d like to feature here or in the calendar next week? Reply to this email with a link and we’ll give you options!
💓 media recs for a deeper dive now or later
For your brain:
Hēmi Kelly: A Tradition of Māori Translation article
We love witnessing Hēmi Kelly at his nerdiest and this study on the art-science of language translation has to be getting close to peak-geek. So. Interesting!
Free I 5 mins I Mostly reo Pākehā
While we’re talking about kete filling…
Māori owned company, Tik Tak Design Co., are offering Te Whānau o Te Arawhata members 20% off gorgeous native bird mobiles and Christmas decorations when they spend over $100.
Pīwari. Rawa. Atu./Too. Cute.
🌟 BONUS DISCOUNT: Tohu Wines are still also offering Te Whānau o Te Arawhata members 20% off all items except special offers until 31 October! 🌟
*Te Whānau o Te Arawhata members will get their exclusive discount code in an email shortly. Join the club from just $1.50/week to get in on this deal and a new one every week!
🗣️ notes from our connection journey to fuel yours
Connection journey lessons + a cry with Mike McRoberts
The Mike McRoberts smiling at me from a zoom tab has clearly been on a haerenga/journey.
I knew him before, see. Well that’s a bit of a stretch, but I did used to spend hours every wiki watching him turn ‘on’ and ‘off’ to camera from a kokonga pōuri/dark corner of the TV3 studio.
Sounds creepy, but it was my uni job.
Āe, for most of 2012, I was the one turning the autocue to bring you the 6pm news and though I had little direct interaction with Mike, I did get a sense of the guy’s character;
Kind, funnier than you might expect, he swore more too (they all did), professional for sure but— and lets remember I was seeing him for one hour during one small portion of his work life—he didn’t scream warmth and passion.
The Mike in front of me now? Well, it’s like he escaped open heart surgery without being done up. That poho/chest is ripped right open. He’s INCREDIBLY warm, soft even, and he’s carrying a new level of something… a confidence, completeness, freedom pea/maybe, that I’m sure wasn’t there before.
He’s not turning it on either, through my aforementioned experience, I can tell (also, he cried). Kāo/Nope, this is the result of a cultural connection journey.
In his own kupu/words, Mike grew up ‘completely disconnected’ from his Māori culture. As a young journo, the experience of not passing his RNZ reo Māori pronunciation test still haunts him.
But somewhere between my autocue operating career ending and now, he reached a turning point in his life and made the decision to learn te reo Māori and reclaim his tuakiri/identity.
He made a (perfect) doco, ‘Kia ora, Good Evening’ about that journey. He just released a new book, ‘Speaking My Language - Te Kōrero i Tōku Reo’ about it, and seeing the results in front of me, I’m keen AS to hear first-hand about it.
Our kōrero did not disappoint and was full of learnings generously shared. Click here to read my top eleven takeaways.
Hey fam? Thanks so much for reading and supporting us again this week.
Ā tērā Paraire/Next Friday we’re back. I’m not sure what the kaupapa kōrero is yet 😅. Any suggestions? Shoot me a reply.