Our Waiata

Gifted to NZALT by Mr Te Hurinui Bryan Clarke

This waiata was gifted to NZALT in 2010 by: Te Hurinui Brian Clarke. It is sung by Room 6 at Aramoho School, Whanganui.

The children are learning te reo Māori, English and French at school. Their teacher Mrs Helen Ngapo was awarded the inaugural award for Excellence in Language Teaching by the New Zealand Association of Language Teachers (NZALT) in 2010 for her commitment to the teaching of languages and in particular, her passion for French.

The main words of the song are in te reo Māori. All delegates at conference 2010 received these words on their USB stick. Please preserve the te reo Māori as is but do change/add phrases as appropriate to the occasion/languages you are celebrating... It would be great to have more versions online on YouTube (see below).

Click here to download a slide show of the lyrics.

Click here to download a Word document of the lyrics.

Submitted lyrics in languages that are not in the gifted waiata version:

"Nimen ha, dajia hao" (Chinese) by Luba Roth (Canterbury)

YouTube versions

Aramoho School, Whanganui - official launching of the waiata.

The waiata itself starts at 1:17 min after the students' introduction.

Canterbury NZALT teachers

Well done to the Canterbury teachers who have performed a version of the waiata and a karaoke version on the same link. Chinese is included.