"When you got into say 1947 onwards, Māori was not allowed to be spoken at school," he said.
So it was an emotional moment when he went into his local FreshChoice supermarket in Rānui this week and saw big signs on the walls and in the aisles permanently changed to both English and Māori.
"I didn't think it would ever happen," he said.
Some 800km away in Christchurch, FreshChoice and SuperValue national brands manager Liz de Lange came up with the idea, along with Māori Language Week posters, colouring-in pictures and matching cards with Māori and English words, when her two preschoolers came home from creche speaking Māori words.
"I didn't know the words," she said. "When they came home and started singing a Māori song to me, that's when I clicked. There must be hundreds of other parents out there who can't engage their children in that way."
At Rānui, store owner Pranil Ranchhod already had a close relationship with the Rānui Primary School. Many of his staff had children at the school, and he had involved the children and kaumātua when the store opened last year.
Yesterday Mr Taua, the kaumātua for the school's 48-strong Māori immersion unit, opened a ceremony to unveil the new signage with karakia.
Some of the children spoke and sang. Some have also recorded the store's weekly specials in te reo Māori so that they can be played on the store's loudspeakers, along with an English version, through the rest of this week.
FreshChoice general manager Mark Brosnan, who also spoke, said the 60 owner-operators in the FreshChoice and SuperValue group had not yet decided whether to follow Rānui's lead.
"This is our first foray into this and we are just going to be building on it," he said.
For Mr Taua, life has come full circle. Like many of his generation, he lost a lot of te reo Māori when it was drummed out of him at school. Now his grandson, a student at Western Springs College's Māori immersion unit Ngā Puna o Waiōrea, has just won a speech competition in te reo.
"All my grandchildren, they all speak it because they went through it.
Te reo Māori translation
E kore rawa te kaumātua nei, a Hori (George) Winikerei Taua o Rānui i whakapono ka taka te rā e whata tahi mai te kupu Māori me te kupu Pākehā i te toa hoko kai o tōna takiwā.
E 77 ngā tau o te kaumātua nei, i tipu ake ia i te hapori kōrero Māori i Te Henga, e mōhiotia nei ko Bethells Beach.
Hei tā te kaumātua nei, "Kāore he hapori kōrero Pākehā i tērā wā, e tipuria ana taua kāinga e te waoku. Ko te oranga o te tangata ko te moana, ko te whenua, he kōpuha tō mātou whare, he rarauwhe kua ūhia ki te pēke ō mātou moenga."
I te Pakanga Tuarua o te Ao, e 7 ōna tau, kātahi anō ia ka haere ki te kura i te hūnukutanga o ana mātua ki Māngere. I te mutunga o te pakanga, kua kore kē e whakaaehia te kōrero Māori i te kura.
Hei tāna anō, "Mai i te tau 1947 haere ake, kīhai i whakaaehia te kōrero Māori i te kura."
Nō reira, pupū ake ana te aroha i te taenga ake o te kaumātua nei ki te toa o FreshChoice i Rānui i te wiki nei, i tana kitenga i ngā pānui nui tonu i ngā paetara, i ngā riunga, kua huri kē ki te reo Pākehā me te reo Māori.
Ka kī ake ia, "Kīhai au i whakapono ka pēnei te āhua." I Ōtautahi, e 800 kiromita ki te tonga, nō te kaiwhakahaere o ngā waitohu o FreshChoice me SuperValue te whakaaro kia pēnei te pakihi nei, i tana kitenga i ngā pānui whakaahua mō Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, i ngā pikitia hei karakara mā te tamariki me ngā kāri whakatairite i te kupu Māori me te kupu Ingarihi, i te hokinga mai o ana tamariki e rua i tō rāua kura kōhungahunga, me tā rāua whakahuahua anō i ētahi kupu Māori.
Hei tāna, "Kīhai au i mōhio ki ā rāua kupu. I tō rāua hokinga mai me te waiata mai i tā rāua waiata Māori ki a au, ka taka te kapa. Kāore e kore kei waho rā te tokomaha noa atu o ngā mātua kāore e mōhio ki te whakawhiti whakaaro pērā ki ā rātou tamariki."
I Rānui, kua whai hononga tata kē te rangatira o te toa, a Pranil Ranchhod ki Te Kura Tuatahi o Rānui. E haere ana hoki ngā tamariki a ētahi o ana kaimahi ki taua kura, ka mutu i whai wāhi atu ngā tamariki me ngā kaumātua ki te whakatuwheratanga o tana toa i tērā tau.
Inanahi nei, ka riro mā te kaumātua nei, mā Koro Taua, te kaumātua mō te akoranga rumaki e 48 nei āna tauira, ka riro māna e hura ake ngā pānui hou ki te karakia.
I kōrero, i waiata ētahi o ngā tamariki. Ka hopukina e ētahi ngā hekenga utu mō te wiki ki te reo Māori, kia pāhotia ai i te toa, i te taha o ngā pāhotanga Ingarihi, i te roanga atu o te wiki.
Hei tā tētahi o ngā kaikōrero, a Mark Brosnan, te kaiwhakahaere whānui o FreshChoice, kāore anō i oti te whakatau a ngā rangatira e 60 o FreshChoice me SuperValue, kia whai rātou katoa i te huarahi kua parahia mai e Rānui.
Hei tāna, "Ko tā mātou whakamātautanga tuatahi tēnei, nō reira me āta haere, me āta ahu whakamua."
Mō Koro Taua, kua huri porowhita te ao. Pērā i te tokomaha atu o tōna whakatipuranga, ka nui te reo Māori i ngaro i a rātou i te kura. Heoi anō, inā tata nei, ka toa tētahi o ana mokopuna i tētahi whakataetae whaikōrero Māori. Kei roto te mokopuna nei i te akoranga rumaki, i Ngā Puna o Waiōrea, i te Kāreti o Western Springs.
"Katoa aku mokopuna he kōrero Māori, i whai hoki rātou i tērā huarahi."
• Nā Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori i whakamāori (Translation provided by Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori).
On TV today
Māori TV
7am-8am and 4pm-5pm: Children's shows dubbed into te reo.
9.30pm: Whare Taonga. Stories of iwi and hapu as they relate to a specific whare.
Tonight: Rapaki in Whakaraupo (Lyttelton Harbour).
Te Reo Channel
7pm: Pukuhohe. A game show made for Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori that puts two teams against each other in a war of wits and cunning.
Words of the day: Mahi (work)
Lunch: Kai tina
Weekend: Mutunga wiki
Email: I-mēra
Meeting: Hui
Visitor: Manuhiri
Reception: Kiripaepae
Friday: Rāmere
Te Wiki o te Reo Maori
The New Zealand Herald, with Māori Television and the Māori Language Commission, is marking New Zealand's 40th Māori Language Week with Māori words and phrases for a different theme each day.
Rāhina (Monday): Kāinga (home).
Inanahi (yesterday): Haerere (travel).
Nōnāianei (today): Mahi (work)
Apōpō (tomorrow): Kura (school)
Rāmere (Friday): Hākinakina (sport)
How to learn the language
Courses
• Te Wananga o Aotearoa
www.twoa.ac.nz
• Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi
www.wananga.ac.nz
• Te Wananga o Raukawa
www.wananga.com
• Te Wananga Takiura
www.twt.ac.nz
• Te Ataarangi
www.teataarangi.org.nz
www.whichcoursewhere.co.nz
Online
• www.maorilanguage.net
Mobile phone app
• www.maori.ac.nz
TV
• www.maoritelevision.com
Other links/resources
• www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz
