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Improving digital experiences for te reo Māori speakers

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11 September 2023

To support the goal of having one million reo Māori speakers by 2040, we’re collaborating with Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa National Library and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa to make te reo Māori and taonga Māori more visible and accessible across all our digital channels.

To help us understand how we can achieve this, we’ve been working with Indigenous Design & Innovation Aotearoa (IDIA) — a Māori-owned and led design agency based in Wellington — to undertake user research. With a focus on amplifying indigenous voices, the research so far has involved:

  • one-to-one interviews with several tāngata Māori

  • a group workshop further exploring the interview topics, prioritising content for translation and evaluating concepts for delivery.

Following this, a report summarising the research and identifying recommendations for next steps was produced.

This groundbreaking research is unique in the Aotearoa New Zealand GLAM sector, and we’re sharing what we’ve learnt to help other organisations on their bilingual journeys.

Read the report summarising the research and recommendations

This research is a starting point and, as the report recommends, there’s still work to do. We’re proactively continuing our mahi towards using te reo Māori on our digital channels in a way that is welcoming and mana-enhancing to reo Māori speakers at all levels.

You’ll soon see some changes to our websites based on the recommendations from the report. We’re excited to share this journey with you.