Museum guides have te reo prompts

Rotorua Museum sales and marketing manager Jo Doherty says staff will be greeting visitors in te reo Maori as part of Te Wiki o te reo Maori - Maori Language Week. Photo / Ben Fraser

Rotorua Museum is embracing and promoting Te Wiki o te reo Maori - Maori Language Week.

Front of house and cafe staff, and guides will be greeting visitors in te reo Maori and will be handing out a small kupu (word) cards to encourage others to use the language.

Today is the first day of Te Wiki o te Reo Maori, which runs through to Sunday. This year's theme is, 'Whangaihhia te reo Maori ki nga matua - Nurture the language in parents so that it may grow'.

"Each of the guides [has] a selection of words to use, so we've been giving them training sessions to refresh. They already incorporate kupu into their tours but we will be handing out prompt cards to all visitors," museum sales and marketing manager Jo Doherty said. "Previous years, we haven't done anything to promote it. But this year we started talking about it earlier and it's all part of the Te Arawa partnership."

Staff would also be singing on the steps of the main foyer.

"We get together once a fortnight to sing waiata, we practice on the steps, it's got quite good acoustics and that's usually before we open. We often have powhiri here and singing in support after a speaker is something we do quite regularly," she said.

The waiata sessions are today at 2pm, and 3pm tomorrow and Friday.

Also part of the Rotorua Lakes Council celebrations, the Rotorua Library will be hosting several events. An official opening starts at 10am today, followed by storytelling by Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Hurungaterangi.