The Library holds a wealth of material written in the Māori language that can help everyone, from the absolute beginner to the very advanced learner. Here are some starters for using the available resources.
More about Māori resources in the collections
For beginners
- Browse the Library’s online catalogue to see what publications or language kits the Library holds and request any that you think look interesting.
- Look through the te reo Māori section (400s) of the Māori Reference Collection on the ground floor of the Library, and check out the dictionaries, grammar guides and phrasebooks available on the open shelves.
- Take a look at some books from the National Children’s Collection. This collection has a lot of basic readers written in te reo Māori that are easy to read and to follow, and have awesome illustrations.
More about the Māori Reference Collection
More about the National Children’s Collection
For more advanced learners
Check out Niupepa Māori (available online, and also held in the Newspaper Reading Room on the lower ground floor, and in the Alexander Turnbull Library Research Centre on the first floor).
Niupepa Māori is a collection of 42 newspaper titles published primarily for a Māori audience between 1842 and 1933. They have mostly te reo Māori or bilingual English-Māori text. Niupepa Māori is a good source for finding the old Māori dialects, colloqualisms, phrases and poeticism. The newspapers also contain all the gossip of the day.
Visit Te Ao Hou (The New World), a website with digitised copies of Te Ao Hou magazine. This is a great online language resource.
The New Zealand and Pacific Book Collection in the Alexander Turnbull Library contains early books in Māori and items collected by Bishop William Williams.
Niupepa Māori online – New Zealand Digital Library website
More about the New Zealand and Pacific Book Collection
