In conjunction with celebrating Te Wiki o te Reo Māori - Māori Language Week, we’re delighted to announce that APRA AMCOS NZ now has a name and logo incorporating a new reo translation:
Te Tautāwhinga – kaitito puoro, kaitito pūoru
Te Tautāwhinga means to support or to be of assistance; kaitito puoro means songwriters, and kaitito pūoru means music composers.
It’s wonderful to have a translation that encompasses our core mission to support songwriters and composers and to make sure their work is valued and treasured, while also reflecting our shared love of the language and identity.
We are greatly honoured to have Sir Tīmoti Kāretu (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu) create this beautiful translation for us.
Sir Tīmoti has been a teacher of te reo Māori for over 60 years, including as a Senior Lecturer and Professor at the University of Waikato, and as co-founder and an Executive Director of Te Panekiretanga o te Reo Māori, the Institute of Excellence in Māori Language. He was appointed the inaugural Māori Language Commissioner in 1987, worked at Te Kohanga Reo National Trust as Executive Director, and is an award-winning author of books about the language, waiata and haka. He has been involved with kapa haka all his life as a performer, tutor, judge and songwriter. Most recently he has translated contemporary songs into Māori as well as collaborating to write new material with the band Six60. Sir Tīmoti Kāretu was created Knight Companion of the Order of New Zealand in 2017.