Those are the kupu one Pākehā grandmother hopes will encourage more New Zealanders to take their first step toward te reo Māori and te ao Māori. Although learning te reo is something she wishes she had embraced decades earlier, she hopes her story shows it is never too late. Learning te reo became a way of understanding Aotearoa differently, she said. “I’m very aware that for a Pākehā to learn te reo and for a Māori to learn te reo, they’re two extremely different experiences.” As a grandmother and great-grandmother, she said she feels hopeful seeing younger generations learning te reo Māori, tikanga and waiata from their earliest years at school.