In the 12 years during which I have had the privilege and pleasure of learning te reo Māori, my appreciation of its depth and beauty and my understanding of how much the language is fundamentally connected to the natural world has grown. There is no doubt about it, I feel infinitely more settled in my own skin for having climbed aboard this waka reo.
I have noticed this in particular with the use of kupu whakarite, or metaphor in te reo, and the way the characteristics of birds, trees, stars, the sea or the land become analogies for the behaviour of people. For example: "He manawa tītī" - "the heart of a tītī/ muttonbird" - which is a beautiful expression for someone who sticks at something no matter what, so-called because the tītī are spectacular long-distance migratory birds.
One of my favourites is: "he hoe kōnukenuke" - a crooked paddle, an expression for an unreliable person because when you're in a boat with a crooked paddle you'll end up going round in circles. Another one I think we can all relate to is: "he whakarongo tai" - a speaker who drones on and on - so it is literally like "listening to the waves". There's a reason we generally sleep well to the sound of the sea, right?
Imagine if these sayings were just everyday expressions in Aotearoa.They are uniquely of this country and are entirely relatable to any person born here. As New Zealanders nobody lives far from the sea, we love the bush, some of us sail or climb mountains - we are renowned for being a nature-loving country. And although some of these kupu whakarite are of ancient times and referencing species no longer with us, for example, "he puku moa" - the stomach of a moa, meaning someone who is a glutton, most of them are referring to things we see every day.
