One of my favourite sessions of Auckland Writers Festival was Witi Ihimaera Smiler’s free event where he talked about the experiences that make up Te Kaikaukau. Just shy of 80, Witi made the plunge to consciously step into an immersive te reo Māori experience, whereby for a year he learnt from fellow students and his teachers, speaking only in te reo Māori within the walls of their classrooms, and coming to terms with the many layers behind learning the language of you people, a language that has gone through so much.

Novelist, memoirist and playwright Witi Ihimaera – author of Pounamu, Pounamu and The Whale Rider – decided, at the age of eighty, to dive back into the water and spend a year full time at Te Wānanga Takiura, immersing himself in his own language, in te reo Māori. This book tells the story of this kaikaukau, this swimmer, and his year i te ao o te reo – of sinking and floating; of loss and shame, connection and wairua; of fathers and teachers, kuia and friends. A riveting and revealing memoir, Te Kaikaukau | The Swimmer sparkles with whaikōrero and whakataukī and is written for all – Māori and Pākehā, fluent reo Māori speakers and those for whom the language is still a mystery, a dream, an aspiration. It is the story of a Māori New Zealander reclaiming his voice, history and whakapapa in contemporary Aotearoa. Of becoming Witi Ihimaera Smiler and drawing closer to his desire to write a novel in te reo for his beloved father Tom and his tīpuna. 

This memoir had me thinking of a lot, drawing parallels between Witi’s experiences in Te Kaikaukau, Shilo Kino’s All That We Know, Tina Makereti’s experiences in This Compulsion in Us, and my own experiences at the start of my reconnection and reclamation journey. The forging of connections in language, cultural understanding, and location, as well as the history behind them all. It is a reassuring reminder that you are never too old to learn the reo, never too old to be a student, and you are never out of place when you are doing something from the heart.

I have thought about attending a full-immersion school to learn te reo Māori with the cultural and communal support and rounding out of knowledge. I have heard the waiting lists are long and the screening process can be unexpected, but I can wholly see the significant impact it would have, not just on the learning and solidifying of language retention, but the connections you make sharing the space with others. It is a daunting thing to consider too, and there can be all sorts of thoughts that come up. Am I worthy of being one of these students? Is it right for me to be seeking this knowledge when others are more connected to their whakapapa, their turangawaewae, and their iwi? how much do I need to learn before even registering? Will I never have the time to commit to this endeavour?

What Te Kaikaukau has taught me though is that you are never alone on the journey of language reclamation. The class is a community, a family, and help is always on hand. This is also a reminder that I feel is so important to note down: language reclamation is a communal thing. It is not just for the self that we learn the reo, learn the histories and stories and what it means to be able to speak a native language. It is a communal efort to carry on the culture at the heart of the reo, to build and expand and reinforce the knowledge across the country, to learn and teach, to support and guide, and to make it fun and something to hold onto for more than just the language acquisition. It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to raise the children of the reo. How would we be able to use the reo if we didn’t have community to response and converse and discuss and argue with?

I highly recommend Witi Ihimaera Smiler’s memoir to all those looking to learn from the expert storywriter, whether that be in his storytelling, his experiences as a student, or simply his life as a whole. Te Kaikaukau is a stunning memoir that will uplift, support, and spread kindness and love, not just for the language and the culture, but for the people who make learning such a rewarding process. I can picture the magic within the air, the excitement upon walking in each day, and the buzzing anxious thrill of finding more and more words to use in everyday exchanges.