Araraurangi (Air New Zealand) has made its Kia Rere app available to the public to mark te Wiki o te reo Māori, Maori Language Week.
The app, created by Air NZ in partnership with NZ Māori Tourism and produced by Kiwa Digital, has been available for staff to practice and improve their reo for some time.
It has a range of interactive features including audio learning and the ability to create a mihimihi, or introduction and share the user's journey in te reo Māori.
The airline's Cultural Development Manager Henare Johnson says the app is designed to help beginners feel confident with pronunciation and expand their Māori language vocabulary, just as it did for airline staff.
"Araraurangi is a huge supporter of Māori culture and encourages sharing the culture through the use of te reo. We wanted to create an app to help our people on their te reo journey and at the same time give Aotearoa the opportunity to learn and feel comfortable using te reo with us."
"I would consider we are still very much at the start, but this is a really exciting step in our cultural journey to share te reo Māori with each other and our customers," Johnson said.
"We're so proud to fly with the language under the Mangōpare – the symbol on the tail of all our aircraft – and we want to share that pride with the rest of Aotearoa. Whether you want to learn the te reo National Anthem, fine tune your pronunciation of place names or prepare a mihi."
Kia rere is ready to download in the App Store and on Google Play.
