Rotorua cafe to operate fully in te reo Māori: 'A precious taonga'

A Rotorua cafe aiming to become New Zealand’s first fully immersive te reo Māori cafe is set to open later this year, encouraging customers to speak the language while ordering and interacting inside.

Rumaki Cafe has been created as a space where people can naturally use and practise te reo Māori in an everyday setting, executive director Miraka Davies said.

Davies told Breakfast the idea came from her own struggle to regularly use te reo Māori outside of classes and organised events.

"We get to a point of conversational ability where we realise if we can't use it regularly, we are going to lose it again," she said.

"It's a precious taonga and we don't want to lose it, so we need to use it."

Davies said many learners faced the same challenge, adding that te reo Māori had become something “tacked on” around everyday life.

“I just kind of dreamed, what would it look like if there was a natural, normal, everyday place?” she said.

“So, I thought, cafes. We all go to a cafe every now and then.”

Owned by a charitable trust, the goal was normalising te reo Māori in everyday spaces, not maximising profit.

“We’ll have someone at the door who will greet you, make sure that you understand what it is that you’re walking into, and figure out what level of support you might need,” she said.

The cafe would also use QR codes to help customers translate phrases and hear pronunciations.

Davies said some people had raised concerns about how the immersive environment would work, including whether customers would be asked not to speak English.

She said context would matter, including whether someone was being disruptive or had simply forgotten.

“For those of us who are learning te reo Māori, it’s really common to opt in and choose to go to spaces where we do get reminded, ‘Hey, remember, this is a reo Māori space,’ because we want that,” she said.

“If you don’t like what we’re doing, that’s okay. No one’s forcing you to come.

“This is a space that is primarily to support te reo Māori and secondarily a cafe."

Rumaki is set to open July 30.