JUSTIN ROGERS

Post Category:

Te Reo

A living language

August 5, 2026

Teaching my first class, I thought it was about sharing a few kapa haka songs.
I was wrong.

What it’s really about is bringing a language to life. Waiata happens to be a brilliant way of doing that.

Our waiata are oral histories that come alive again with each performance. They also have the language built right into them.

A language that is alive is a language that is used, that is seen, heard, felt, valued and is growing each day.

It might look like learning a few songs, or integrating a couple of phrases…

… but your weekly kapa haka session or daily te reo time are really building blocks for a living language.

The three ingredients

April 25, 2026

I have a question for you: As a teacher, what do you find most difficult about making te ao Māori part of your day?

Many schools genuinely want to make te ao Māori an authentic, living part of daily school life…

…but often the challenge is not intention, it’s knowing how to turn that intention into something practical, consistent, and sustainable for busy staff.

That’s why I recorded this short video for you.

In it, I share 3 core ingredients I keep seeing in schools that are making real progress with embedding te ao Māori school-wide.

If this is something your school is working toward, I think you’ll get a lot from this video.

Does making learning fun trivialise the learning?

March 7, 2026

There’s a belief I’ve battled with in the past that if we make learning fun, it undercuts the seriousness of the subject.

Whenever I have an internal conflict like this I always come back to outcome. What is this really about? What are we trying to do?

Well with the learning I deliver, my big bold outcome is to bring it to life for the kids. Words can also betray us a bit here, because you hear a word like ‘fun’ and that might conjure images of a hectic classroom, a ball bouncing off a window and no one listening to each other.

So maybe the word ‘fun’ isn’t the right word.

What I’m really looking for is life.

There is life in a kid’s eye when they are transfixed by a giant digger doing construction next door. There is life in their eye when they notice an adult is in a bad mood. And there is indeed life when they are learning something they love.

The only thing that can trivialise learning is a trivial intention.

If you’re looking to make ‘fun’ of something, yeah you’re probably going to be a bit disrespectful.

If you’re looking to bring something to life, though? Well now you’re playing a game I like. And there are a million and one ways to bring something to life. There are quiet ways, big ways, busy ways and gentle ways.

Let’s take seriously our job to create vibrant, living connections to the learning we share.

That sounds fun to me

Whakaiti

November 24, 2025

In te reo the word for small is iti.

It’s such a cute word. There’s also a word for making something small:

‘Whakaiti’

‘Whaka’ means to ‘do’ or ‘make’.

‘Iti’ means ‘small’.

To ‘whakaiti’ a person is to make them small. I love the simplicity of that translation. I don’t, however, love what it represents.

Making people small is, unfortunately, really common these days. Couples make jokes at the expense of their significant other, we laugh at peoples attempts or push them down when they try something new.

What we should aim to do is make people big: to whakanui them. That is, to shine a light on them. Uphold their mana. Listen when they want to be seen anew. Celebrate them and support them.

Remember, it’s not always obvious if what you’re doing is a whakaiti or a whakanui. And it might seem like a little joke here and there doesn’t matter…

But one cut still draws blood.

Here’s a simple question if you’re unsure: is what I’m saying or doing honouring the fullness of this human being, or shrinking them down for a quick laugh or aside?

It’s easy to whakaiti someone. But it takes real guts to make others big, celerbrate them and honour them no matter what.

Useful, inspiring and cool things

Join my newsletter

Categories