Northland's Kawiti Waetford says understanding how things worked in both worlds was essential when interpreting.
Northland's Kawiti Waetford says understanding how things worked in both worlds was essential when interpreting.
Te Tai Tokerau’s Kawiti Waetford uses his performing skills from the international opera stage and a lifetime’s te reo Māori to now bridge the language gap as a Northland council interpreter.
Waetford, (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Wai, Ngāpuhi) converts council meetings’ spoken mahi from te reo Māori to English for Far North District Council (FNDC) and Northland Regional Council (NRC).
“There’s an element of performing, having to perform on the spot, similarly to how you’re performing under pressure in front of an audience when singing,” Waetford, 33, said.
Kawiti Waetford. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa mentored his international opera career.
The discipline of having to perform under pressure and get results in front of often hundreds of people on the opera stage was a useful skill for simultaneous interpreting, he said.
Waetford has a Masters degree in Advanced Vocal Studies from the Wales International Academy of Voice plus a Bachelor of Music – Classical Performance (voice) and Languages and Linguistics from the University of Otago.
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa mentored his international opera career.
Waetford has not long finished working as a pou tikanga (cultural adviser) for this year’s reality television show Celebrity Treasure Island.
The Bay of Islands-based baritone opera singer on Monday ) hosted Tōiri, an evening of te reo Māori opera celebrating the start of Māori language week, in a collaboration between Auckland’s Te Pou Theatre and New Zealand Opera.
The event showcased a fusion of waiata Māori, all performed in te reo Māori.
Licensed interpreter Kawiti Waetford (in pink shirt) converts discussion at FNDC's recent Māori ward meeting near Kaikohe from te reo Māori to English via earpieces worn by councillors, staff, media and others as required.
Waetford translated half a dozen of opera’s “big bangers”, sung at the show, including hugely well-known opera pieces from Italian-language Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s La Boheme into te reo Māori for the performance.
Being a confident te reo Māori and English speaker has given Waetford the confidence to walk between te ao Māori and Pākehā worlds.
He said interpreting the two languages was about more than simply words.
Being well-versed in te ao Māori was essential too.
“Cultural knowledge is very important.”
Understanding how things worked in both worlds was essential when interpreting, Waetford said.
Te reo Māori and te ao Māori were central to Waetford’s upbringing through full immersion language kohanga reo in Auckland, then schooling at Whangārei’s Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Rawhitiroa. His final two years of secondary education were at Kamo High School. Music, song and kapa haka were second nature.
Waetford was born in Auckland where he went to kohanga reo. He shifted north to Matapouri with his mother as a youngster and was raised by her with wider whānau support.
He said his generation came out of the first stages of te reo Māori renaissance via the kohanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori movements.
That had given him the opportunity to have elders, tupuna, kaumatua and kuia also involved in the education systems.
Te reo Māori is his first language and he has been singing all his life.
“I remember the lullabies from when I was a baby sung by my mother and nanny.”
Licensed interpreter Kawiti Waetford converts spoken te reo Māori to English for councillors, via the written word through a shared online application, at a recent NRC council meeting.
He pronounced as a 4-year-old that he wanted to be an opera singer, after seeing the musical Phantom of the Opera.
Waetford started singing lessons with Whangārei’s late Dame Joan Kennaway QSM at age 7.
Three decades of being immersed in te ao Māori and its language are bringing growing opportunities for Kerikeri-based Waetford.
The lifelong te re Māori speaker’s professional mahi is multi-faceted – classically trained singer, performer, voiceover artist, licensed te reo Māori interpreter and translator, cultural adviser, and public speaker – the list continues to grow.
Waetford has been licensed as a registered interpreter and translator through Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori – Māori Language Commission since July 2022.
His work showcases successfully living and thriving in more than one language.
His two years of local government te reo Māori interpretation work are at the new frontier of this mahi, both for Waetford and councils.
Waetford does interpretation for monthly FNDC and NRC council meetings, plus their respective Te Kauaka – Te Ao Māori committee and Te Taitokerau Māori and council working party hui.
This involves simultaneously interpreting te reo Māori spoken in the meetings, predominantly via the spoken voice to English, via earpieces used by councillors, media and similar.
The interpretation from spoken te reo Māori at times instead happens via his written notes for councillors through their shared cloud-based meeting collaboration application.
His work with councils has come about roughly in sync with the advent of Māori wards.
FNDC and NRC’s six Māori ward councillors all speak fluent te reo Māori, along with Far North Mayor Moko Tepania and Deputy Mayor Kelly Stratford.
Tepania said te reo Māori was spoken in council meetings to varying degrees.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
