Waiata Mai Series: First of its Kind

Media Release

12 January 2015

Waiata Mai Series: First of its Kind

Any parent of young children will understand the value of a resource that can entertain tamariki while educating them at the same time. And most parents will probably identify with the fact that tamariki will watch videos they like, on repeat, for weeks on end. This is the rationale behind the creation of the Waiata Mai series.

Waiata Mai, a bilingual music video series produced by Maraea Davies of Hei Tiki Creatives is a ‘made-for-YouTube’ series of 40 songs designed to engage tamariki while teaching basic Māori language sentence structures, using the potential for repetition as a vehicle for memorisation of the various structures. As far as Māori language series for children and their families go, it is the first of its kind; the language can be instantly applied by parents and tamariki to everyday life situations.

The idea for the series evolved from Maraea seeing how much her toddlers loved and learned from YouTube edutainment like ABC, counting videos and other educational videos. “My 18 month old son experienced impressive learning outcomes as a result of his exposure to YouTube. The problem was there were no quality Māori language based videos for children. As a solution we started creating our own,” Maraea says.

Using the English videos that most engaged her tamariki in learning as a guideline, Maraea produced a few videos for YouTube. Success with channel views and an expanding subscriber base on her channel resulted in a pitch to Māori language funding body Ma Te Reo for Waiata Mai, and funding was subsequently granted.

The categories in Waiata Mai focus on different educational areas; Ko Au is based on the child, their whanau and their body; Patai is based on common questions children ask; I Tenei Ra looks at children in their everyday settings; Matauranga contains songs about colours shapes, seasons and time of day and ‘He Takaro, He Toi’ focuses on activities tamariki enjoy.

The strength of the series as a quality Māori language resource rests with Ngāti Awa and Tūhoe based language advisors Waitangi and Te Ranui Black who have overseen the project from writing through to the final editing process and who are pleased with the resultant media as an effective resource.

As far as the video production goes, Maraea says “It was fitting to place much of the filming at the Treehouse Bilingual Montessori and Te Waipuna Ariki o Matangireia given the drive of both local centres to provide tamariki with a bilingual environment. The involvement of kaupapa Maori driven kura like Te Ao Marama Kohanga Reo, Te Paroa Kohanga Reo and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Orini ki Ngāti Awa has also been fantastic and an affirmation we are on the right path in our pursuit of learning and sharing te reo Māori.”

Maraea hopes the Waiata Mai series will be helpful to whanau at home and abroad and provide for teachers in childhood centres where there is a lack of Maori language teaching or media. For anyone interested in DVDs of the songs or links to the videos, details are available at waiatamai.co.nz.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waiatamai

Website: http://waiatamai.co.nz

Twitter: @heitikicreative #waiatamai

© Scoop Media