News & Insights
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori
Author
Date
- 2025 September
If we’re shaping the built environment, we need to respect its roots.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, a legacy born from advocacy and cultural pride. In 1975, Māori language champions delivered a petition to Parliament that sparked a movement for reo revitalisation. That petition was about language, but also about identity, belonging, and justice.
Fifty years on, that movement has reshaped the way Aotearoa New Zealand understands itself. For those of us working in the built environment, it challenges us to ask: what does it really mean to honour place?
Shaping the future of our cities and communities begins with acknowledging the cultural and historical roots of the land we build on. This isn’t just a philosophical stance, it’s a practical one. We’ve seen first-hand how embedding te reo Māori and tikanga Māori into our projects strengthens relationships, deepens understanding, and leads to better outcomes.
Every project has a whakapapa. A site is never just a blank canvas. Whether we’re building homes, infrastructure, or commercial precincts, we are entering into a story that began long before us. It is a story held by mana whenua, woven into the land, and reflected in the language of the place.
Te reo Māori gives us a doorway into that story. Beginning with karakia brings focus and intention to a team, using reo in naming brings local pride and authenticity to a development, and sitting in kōrero with hapū and iwi leaders can reframe the very purpose of a project. Together, these practices help ground our work in context and allow us to move from simply delivering a project to co-creating spaces that reflect and respect the communities they serve.
This isn’t always easy work. It takes time. It requires humility. But when we take the time to engage, to listen, and to acknowledge the cultural foundations beneath our work, the results speak for themselves. The outcome is deeper trust, clearer alignment, and spaces that hold meaning beyond their material function.
We’ve also seen these values echoed across the Pacific, particularly in our partnerships with First Nations communities in British Columbia. In British Columbia, as in Aotearoa, language and culture are inseparable from the land. We’ve seen this expressed in projects ranging from health centres to cultural facilities, where design draws on intergenerational knowledge, spiritual connection, and storytelling.
One of our key learnings is this: when you respect the cultural environment, you deliver better in the built one.
As professionals, planners, designers, and advisors, we hold influence. And with that influence comes responsibility to ensure the spaces we help create reflect the values and voices of the people who have always been part of that place.
As we celebrate 50 years of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, we do so not only to acknowledge the past, but also to carry its lessons forward.
We are not the first to shape this land, and we won’t be the last. Our job is to honour those who came before us by designing with care, building with context, and ensuring the projects we deliver are rooted in integrity.
