In what is being called a victory for all Indigenous languages, Yale University is now offering a course in Te Reo Maori, a first for any Ivy League University.
Amelia Butler, who is of Ngātiwai, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Awa descent, found herself teaching Māori culture, language, and kapa haka to Māori and non-Māori living outside of Aotearoa.
Butler had set up the organisation “Learn Maori Abroad” around seven years ago with just five people in her first online class, seven years later her course has now reached many corners of the world and has six other teachers to meet the demand of hundreds.
“I saw a significant need with our whānau living abroad and that many of us have a strong desire to engage with our culture. At the time I started, there was limited to no access to learning te reo Māori here in the US or outside of Aotearoa.”
During the COVID period, the University of Hawai’i was after a Te Reo Māori teacher for an already established Māori course. Butler stepped up to the plate and taught it via Zoom whilst she was back home in NZ.
The popularity of her course led her to gain a student from Yale through the Directed Independent Language Study (DILS) programme, which allows enrolled Yale undergraduate, graduate, and professional school students to study a language that isn’t offered at the university.
The course involves two weekly sessions over 12 weeks, although it doesn’t provide course credit, the university regularly checks in on the student’s progress.
The course primarily focuses on pronunciation, sentence structures, grammar, vocabulary, speaking in te reo Māori, as well as cultural elements within Te Ao Māori.”
Yale is just the start for her as she hopes to teach at other Ivy League Universities with Harvard being next.
Photo Credit: Yale University
