For the 50,000 native speakers and 100,000 who speak it as a second tongue, Maori is very much a living language, gaining strength all the time as both Maori and pakeha increasingly appreciate the cultural value of te reo , a language central to Maoritanga and forming the basis of a huge body of magnificent songs, chants and legends, lent a poetic quality by its hypnotic and lilting rhythms.

Maori is a member of the Polynesian group of languages and shares both grammar and vocabulary with those spoken throughout most of the South Pacific. Similarities are so pronounced that Tupaia, a Tahitian crew member on Captain Cook's first Pacific voyage in 1769, was able to communicate freely with the Aotearoa Maori they encountered. The Treaty of Waitangi was written in both English and Maori, but te reo soon began to lose ground to the point where, by the late nineteenth century, its use was proscribed in schools. Maori parents keen for their offspring to do well in the pakeha world frequently promoted the use of English, and Maori declined further, exacerbated by the mid-twentieth-century migration to the cities. Though never on the brink of extinction, the language reached its nadir in the 1970s when perhaps only ten percent of Maori could speak their language fluently. The tide began to turn towards the end of the decade with the inception of kohanga reo   pre-schools (literally "language nests") where Maoritanga is taught and activities are conducted in Maori. Originally a Maori initiative, it has now crossed over and pakeha parents are increasingly introducing their kids to biculturalism at an early age. Fortunate kohanga reo graduates can progress to the small number of state-funded Maori-language primary schools known as kura kaupapa. For decades, Maori has been taught as an option in secondary schools, and there are now two state-funded tertiary institutions operated by Maori, offering graduate programmes in Maori studies.

The success of these programmes has bred a young generation of Maori speakers frequently far more fluent than their parents who, shamed by the loss of their heritage, are beginning to attend Maori evening classes. Legal parity means that Maori is now finding its way into officialdom too, with government departments all adopting Maori names in recent years and many government and council documents being printed in both languages. The increasing knowledge and awareness has spawned Maori TV and radio broadcasts, notably the nightly news, Te Karere.

In your day-to-day dealings you won't need to speak Maori , though both native speakers and pakeha may well greet you with kia ora (hi, hello), or less commonly haere mai (welcome). On ceremonial occasions, such as marae visits, you'll hear the more formal greeting tena koe (said to one person) or tena koutou katoa (to a group).

If you are interested in learning a little more, the best handy reference is Patricia Tauroa's The Collins Maori Phrase Book (HarperCollins; $15) which has helpful notes on pronunciation, handy phrases and a useful Maori-English and English-Maori vocabulary.