Waiata Anthems Week (September 6-12) is a week dedicated to waiata reo Māori, where more than a dozen New Zealand artists have re-recorded their tracks in te reo Māori. Video / Supplied
When Hollie Smith jumped on the Waiata/Anthems project for a second time she worried some might see her involvement as "overstepping".
Smith said she felt "whakama" (ashamed and embarrassed) about not wanting to get things wrong and not wanting to offend.
But she hopes her involvement will help "re-inherent an indegious language and create a bilingual culture".
After a five-year break, Smith has returned with her fourth solo album, Coming In From The Dark.
She said it has allowed her to create a bilingual single on her own, which is included in this year's Waiata Anthems Week.
"In a way the song for me was sort of an epiphany about breaking free of a particular burden," she said.
Smith knows macrons and Māori vowel sounds have been "normalised the wrong way".
"Because it's been ingrained in our hearing and listening it's quite hard to unravel that learned wrongness," she said.
But her dream is that as more and more New Zealanders hear te reo Māori spoken, basic phrases and place names will be pronounced the correct way.
Smith believes using music and melody is a great tool for listeners to be able to "connect the dots" between particular words and phrases.
When singing in English, Smith takes liberty in how she uses phrases and vowel sounds but knows that in te reo Māori, a slight change in sound can change the meaning completely.
Smith said she couldn't have done it with the translators such as Scotty Morrison whom she worked with for the track.
"To change the phrasing to make it make sense it's got to work both ways so to be able to find those phrases that uphold the meaning of the song while still being singable and familiar, those are really important aspects of translation."
Not only has seeing her songs evolve from english to te reo Māori helped her grow as a songwriter, te reo Māori influenced her teaching at Wintec Hamilton.
"It's about finding those really beautiful little visual and spiritual elements of te reo Māori," she said.
Quite often when her students are feeling shy with stage performance she will get them to sit down and watch kapa haka, which she uses to show them how they can draw confidence from their spirit and the ground.
"What are you drawing from when you're on the stage?" is a question she asks her students.
• Waiata Anthems week (September 6-12) is a week fully dedicated to waiata reo Māori, where more than a dozen New Zealand artists have re-recorded their tracks in te reo Māori.
