Karawhiua 2025 - Give It a Go!

Kia ora whānau
This September, we have a wero (challenge) for everyone: Karawhiua: kia kaha te reo Māori – give it a go! This is a month-long opportunity to improve your skills and make the Māori language strong within yourself, your whānau and your community. We’ve been offering the Karawhiua programme at Hastings District Libraries for the past five years and we couldn’t be more excited to run it again in 2025.

Our programme is designed to tautoko Mahuru Māori, a reo challenge to consciously use as much reo Māori as you can during Mahuru, the fourth lunar month of the Māori year (approximately equivalent to September). You can give it a go and challenge yourself to use and learn te reo this month with support from our team, even if you don’t visit the library.

One of the challenges for Karawhiua this year is the easy but popular: Mihi atu! Use at least three different greetings with others. What were they?

Some of these greetings could be as simple as “tēnā koe!” But why not level-up and go for, “kia ora e hoa”, meaning “hello friend”, or “ata mārie”, meaning “good morning”? These are just a few greetings you could try for this challenge.

A suitable follow up for that challenge might be: Make ‘kia ora’ your first choice of greeting to everyone you speak to for two days. We'd love to hear how you go. Report in about this challenge along with all the others here on our Karawhiua webpage. 

Remember e te whānau, Karawhiua is a challenge, so step outside your comfort zone and give it a go. Come in to any of our libraries to see our displays of books, resources, and suggested reading lists to support your learning and discovery around the kaupapa.

Prizes are awarded each week for participation and completing challenges, and a grand prize will be drawn at the end of the month.

 Posted by Hana

Back to Library Blog