Carmen Parahi is Stuff's Pou Tiaki Editor. The Pou Tiaki strategy aims to provide greater coverage of te ao Māori, and all voices and perspectives in Aotearoa. Prior to Stuff, Carmen was a Producer and Reporter at Native Affairs on Māori Television, and a Reporter at TVNZ 1's Marae and 3 News. She won Executive of the Year at the 2021 Voyager Media Awards and was Runner-Up Reporter of the Year in 2019 and 2021.
 

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One of my favourite whakataukī or proverb is attributed to Waikato and Kīngitanga leader Te Puea Hērangi: mahia te mahi, hei painga mō te iwi, do the work for the benefit of the people.

This week is about celebrating te reo Māori, our increasingly popular but still endangered language. Te Taura Whiri i te reo Māori, the Māori Language Commission has said te reo Māori is the indigenous language of our nation, it unites us and everyone is encouraged to use it.

Our mahi this week at Puna, also known as Stuff, is to try to use more te reo at work, in different activities we've organised for our staff to enjoy. Te reo is in our content, a focus of news stories, videos, mastheads and section titles.

Today, we'll be joining the Māori Language Moment at 12 noon, by cracking into a fiercely competitive te reo Māori Stuff Quiz. But we cannot only do the mahi during te wiki o te reo Māori. Te Wānanga o Aotearoa delivers te reo Māori classes at work for staff to learn, use and attain certificates. We also add translations to our stories and videos, and encourage more use of te reo in our content. But like everyone in the industry, there is more mahi for all of us to do but the love and use of te reo Māori is growing at Puna.