Today is the first day of Maori language week. We are celebrating it by having a moment to sing a waita. At 12:00 our whole school is going to be singing a waita over the intercom. People around NZ are doing the same things as some schools around NZ.
The reason we are doing this is because in 1972, 30,000 signed the petition and gave it to Parliament on the 14th of September 1972 at 12:00 pm. Back in the day you were not allowed to speak your native language, if you spoke your native language in school you would be hit with a cane, so when people spoke their native language in public it was like swearing to other people. We must treasure our language.
