Scotty Morrison. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Scotty Morrison is the host of TVNZ 1's Te Karere, the Māori language news and current affairs show celebrating its 40th anniversary on February 21. Morrison has been championing the language since starting his te reo Māori journey while at Teachers' College at The University of Waikato. Morrison is also the author of the best-selling books The Raupō Phrasebook, Modern Māori and Māori Made Easy.
You don't realise, during childhood, how well or not well it's going but, looking back, mine was awesome. We were part of a big family in Rotorua, and all of our parents could sing like bellbirds. Dad was one of the originals in the Howard Morrison Quartet, and when there was a party - and there were lots of family functions - there'd be guitars and harmonies. Even though us kids would be running round outside playing bullrush, we grew up around melodies and harmonies. We also played for the Waikite Rugby Football Club which bound us together as whānau with all the cousins, second cousins, third cousins.
We had far more freedom than our kids get now. Being brought up by the lake, there wasn't much concern for water safety or where we were going and we had all these undeveloped areas of bush and river where we could roam. We'd do things like skateboard down this really steep street with no helmets. Or play a game where we'd plough into each other on our bikes, to see who fell off first. Or rock wars, that was where two players would throw rocks at two others until someone got hit and cried. We'd play all day and get home late, but we felt so safe.
At high school, I had good mentors through sports and I still carry their philosophies today. Our volleyball coach - he's my eldest son's godfather - taught us about work ethic, discipline and humility. He didn't like us to jump around and do high fives when we won a point. Instead, whenever we did something good, we were taught to nod our head, acknowledge we'd done well, then focus on the next thing. He also taught us that losing is a good learning moment, but make sure you come back from it, because when you fail, it's all about how you recover.
Our school was very good at volleyball and rugby - we won some national championships - so we were quite highly regarded, living the dream. But in seventh form, after rugby finished, I had to figure out what to do next because until then I'd not been thinking about the future. Then recruiters came from Teachers' College at Waikato University and I was lucky enough to be accepted. I was advised by my older cousins who were already at university to pick papers with lectures from Monday to Thursday, to get three-day weekends. Looking in the prospectus, lo and behold Māori language fitted that plan. This is 1990, when Waikato University had been recruiting fluent te reo speakers to go into the kura kaupapa system, which had just started, and because I chose a language paper, I ended up in the bilingual teaching stream. Although I'd had no te reo at school, I gravitated towards these people who spoke Māori at a very high level.
While flatting in my second year, without meaning to, I found myself in a total-immersion household, because my flatmates preferred to speak Māori at home. I was getting formal tuition at university, then colloquial conversation at home and I either had to guts it out or find another flat. Six months in, I came out of my bedroom and two of them are having breakfast, speaking Māori, and one of them said, "here comes the fella who doesn't understand a single word of what we're saying" and I replied, "I can understand everything you're saying, thank you very much" all in te reo Māori. The look on their faces. Oh my goodness. That was my Matrix moment. When Neo can see the Matrix, when the bullets are flying, and he can see them coming and outmanoeuvre them, then throw them back, that's how I felt. The words came out of their mouths, it all synced up and I could process them and feed them back.
I completed my Bachelors and my Masters of Education at Waikato, then I went teaching in Rotorua in a low socioeconomic area. Those new entrants were awesome. They were deprived but they had so much potential, and talent to be explored but, in the third term a friend from Waikato who was lecturing at Massey's Albany campus told me about a dream job. I was a bit hesitant about Auckland but, going back to that volleyball work ethic, you have to have the confidence to take opportunities. If I failed, I had to ensure I learned and bounced back. So I applied, and Auckland has been like the Hotel California because I've never left.
When students were protesting about fees in 2001, Te Karere came to cover the story. Maihi Nikora was the reporter and he needed someone to do an interview in te reo Māori and that bulletin was seen by Waihoroi Shortland and Rereata Makiha. Back then Mai FM, had an AM offshoot called Ruia Mai, delivering Māori language content with a nightly two-hour talkback show with politicians, and movers and shakers who could converse in te reo, and I was asked if I'd be interested in hosting it. I said I don't know how to broadcast, and they said they'd teach me. Two weeks later I was on air.
Even though sometimes I've been nervous or fearful, I'm proud to have taken opportunities when they've presented themselves. When doors have opened, I've gone through them, rather than shutting them and possibly regretting it. Being confident involves conquering fear and if you fail, you learn and that makes you stronger. Opportunities don't come round very often, so it pays to be brave, which is why when Te Karere came along, I said yes. That was 20 years ago.
As we near the 200th anniversary of the signing of The Treaty of Waitangi it's important for us to reflect on where we've come from, how we're going to be better, more unified and more understanding. Society puts a lot of value on what we can collect, what we can gather, but we need to shift that thinking to ask, how much can we contribute? How much can we offer? We need more understanding and discussion around the Treaty, to get it into our heads that there are two signatories, tangata whenua and tangata tiriti. That's where equality will form, then we can utilise the Treaty to lead us into a better future. If you can get understanding, you start to create respect and that will deal to racism. This could be generational. We start planting the seeds now and it might be three generations, when our mokopuna start to enact this but if we tread down that path, those people with racist or prejudiced attitudes, most others will not tolerate them and it'll become very difficult for them to exist.
There's still pockets of resistance, but most people see how fortunate they are to be here, and to have a Treaty between our indigenous people and all others who live in Aotearoa. We're also fortunate to have a language and a culture that give us our identity on the world stage. If you live in Aotearoa, you have just as much responsibility and right to learn te reo Māori, to make it your language that you speak on a daily basis, because it's who we are.
Bringing up bilingual kids takes a lot of effort, but it is very rewarding to watch them develop and flick between languages. My wife Stacey has been a pillar in so many ways. We only speak Māori at home and sometimes feels easier to revert to the default language, so you have to stay motivated, but there's heaps of research about how beneficial bilingualism is to mental health, multi-tasking and warding off dementia because you use more of your brain.
Whenever I talk to young people, and they say they don't know what to do, I say, at least do something while you're working it out. Get up and stay motivated and you will evolve and develop. Don't just sit around, waiting for something to drop out of the sky. I think about one of my ancestral sayings - "tama tū tama ora, tama noho, tama mate" - if you stay stagnant, you won't progress. But if you're up and moving and motivated, you'll always evolve. If you're tenacious, and consistent, something will come up. Be good, look after people and build relationships and, that will go a long way whatever your aspirations are.
Mā te matapopore i te tangata ka matapoporetia koe!
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