Kia ora e whānau me ngā tautangata! Hello fam and strangers! I'm writing little lessons in te reo Māori (the language of the Māori) for my engineering discord, and I thought I'd share them with the world. I'm not Māori, and I'm just a beginner in te reo so if you're more knowledgeable do correct me! The Māori culture is known as "high context" which means communication relies on a lot of cultural context to understand. (English is "low context"). So, lemme give some context. The Māori The Māori are indigenous to Aotearoa (NZ; "land of the long white cloud"). They arrived ~1200AD from the Pacific Islands in 7 great waka (canoes). To this day, when individuals formally introduce themselves they name which waka their ancestors arrived on. General NZ Culture Once upon a time the government tried to kill te reo (the language), but nowadays, a bit of te reo is found everywhere in NZ. You hear "kia ora" all the time, and in formal settings, Māori introductions, welcomes, and karakia