Te Hau Tawhiti from Australia has won The Great Te Māngai Pāho Video Challenge, securing the $10,000 cash prize, for their commitment to te reo Māori.
The Brisbane-based group was established as a mechanism for Māori living in Australia to stay connected to their Māoritanga despite being miles away from their tūrangawaewae. They execute this through the means of haka, waiata, social festivities as well as focusing on their respective te reo Māori journeys.
Te Waikamihi Korohina Ormsby who is a member of Te Hau Tawhiti says the video was created to showcase the challenges Māori face while living abroad.
"We really wanted to show the people at home some of the things we go through and how hard it is to continue learning te reo over here. "
The Great Te Māngai Pāho Video Challenge was part of the #1miriona social media campaign to promote te reo Māori to New Zealanders all over the world.
Te Māngai Pāho established this campaign to get more than one million te reo Māori supporters engaged with the language. They exceeded their goal with more than 2 million interactions on social media.
Ormsby says, "We are so grateful and blessed with this opportunity and it's set something for us to continue our journey."
The concept of this campaign was, “E ora ai te reo – whiua ki te ao! For a language to live – it needs to be shared with the world.”
Being a newly established kapa haka group Ormsby says they plan to use their prize money on resources and kākāhu they may need for the future.