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National | Matariki Awards

Paraone Gloyne honoured for his dedication to te reo Māori and tikanga

Ngāti Raukawa’s Paraone Gloyne has long been dedicated to the revitalization of te reo Māori and its customs.

Gloyne is this year’s winner of the Te Waitī Award for Te Reo and Tikanga at the annual Matariki Awards ceremony tonight.

Other nominees in the category included Jeremy MacLeod and Matewa Media Charitable Trust.

Gloyne is a part of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and is well-known for pioneering the Mahuru Māori movement in 2014 to promote the speaking of te reo Māori in our daily lives.

A graduate of Te Panekiretanga o Te Reo Māori, Gloyne originally came up with the idea as something of a social experiment to see if he could speak te reo Māori for an entire month of September.

The Māori language initiative sees participants speak only te reo Māori during the month of September. It challenges people on social media around the world to speak Māori for a day, a week or for the entire month. It focuses on those who want to progress and strengthen their ability to speak Māori.

In 2016, the Mahuru Māori initiative was incorporated into the Māori language strategy of Te Whare Wānanga o Aotearoa, known as Reo Ora.

Gloyne also spearheaded a Te Wānanga o Aotearoa roadshow which challenged the belief that Matariki is a grouping of seven stars.

In the same year, he then visited five Te Wānanga o Aotearoa sites around the North Island where he presented a mobile move experience to re-educate New Zealanders about Matariki – and to challenge long-held beliefs about the cluster.