Contributions to Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori – Māori Language Week – kept Police’s online and social media channels busy last week. Now staff are being encouraged to keep on using te reo all year round.
Our national Facebook and Twitter accounts adopted the Police tohu (pictured) as their profile picture for the week - and the change proved very popular, receiving more than 400 ‘likes’ on Facebook alone.
It sparked appreciative comments including: “Nice one - shows our individuality to the rest of the world police forces” and “Nice! Proud of your roots and history! That’s why I love this country so much!!!”
Our posts also highlighted the significance of the police whakatauki (proverb), and its meaning alongside the tohu.
Each day we tweeted one of Police’s core values and definitions in Māori, with the hashtags #WikiReoMaori and #NZPValues.
In Eastern District, Hawkes Bay and Tairawhiti areas took part in Te Kupu o Te Rā (word of the day), with staff members - including Tairawhiti Area Commander Inspector Sam Aberahama - uploading daily videos from mobility devices to the area Facebook pages.
In Counties Manukau staff uploaded a video of their MPES team performing a waiata.
Police’s Te Wiki social media posts reached more than 62,000 people.
“A number of staff have contributed to normalising te reo, whether it was last week, last month or across many years,” says Superintendent Wally Haumaha, Deputy Chief Executive Māori.
“Their efforts have laid the platform to advance ideas on the inclusion of te reo across our organisation so it was great to see staff embracing the kaupapa of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori and using social media to showcase their efforts.
“However it’s not about one week in the year – it’s about making an effort every day to correctly pronounce Māori words, particularly people’s names, and to use te reo where appropriate in your daily work and social lives as an expression of our unique culture and character as New Zealanders.”