Weather Presenters Swap for Te Wiki o Te Reo Mā

24 July 2012

TV3 and Māori Television Exchange Weather Presenters for Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori

As part of Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week), TV3 and Māori Television will exchange weather presenters for the first time.

On Friday 27 July, viewers of TV3 News will be treated to Rahia Timutimu presenting a bilingual weather bulletin whilst Mike Hall will present the weather for Māori Television’s daily news programme, Te Kāea.

The two presenters will have the opportunity to rehearse their routines only twice before going live.

For Rahia Timutimu, a Te Kāea reporter and fluent reo speaker, this is not just an exciting opportunity to focus on the correct pronunciation of place names, it’s also a chance to present the weather conditions in Māori. Ready for the challenge, Rahia says “I give full credit to weather presenters; it’s a lot more difficult than it looks in terms of reading and timing the clicker – I hope I don’t mess it up!”

Meanwhile, popular TV3 weather man Mike Hall is enthusiastic about the challenge of presenting on Māori Television’s flagship daily news programme. Keen to brush up on his reo skills, Mike says “I’m always impressed when I hear people speaking Māori. But there’s a big difference between speaking it, and speaking it well. Hopefully this will give me the opportunity to lean towards the latter”.

The idea came from Te Kāea producer Mihingarangi Forbes - an ex-TV3 reporter who now works at Māori Television. Keen to do something different for Māori Language Week, Ms Forbes saw it as an opportunity to share the reo with a wider audience and manaaki (support) those who are willing to learn. ”I know Mike from my days at TV3”, she says. “Good on him for giving it a go. We’ll be supporting him 100 per cent on Friday.”

For further information visit www.maoritelevision.com

ENDS

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