Care for each other<\/p>\n
Roa grew up in a large, busy household.<\/p>\n
He has 10 \u201cbirth siblings\u201d; Roa is one of 11 children born to his mother and father, and his parents also raised five other children.<\/p>\n
His mother was a housewife, his father a truck driver and while they were not a wealthy family, Roa does not recall ever going hungry.<\/p>\n
What they lacked in money, he said, they made up for in care for each other.<\/p>\n
Those early lessons still sit at the centre of how he thinks about leadership.<\/p>\n
History in the making<\/p>\n
Roa was a leader in the 1972 M\u0101ori Language Petition, the recognition of te reo M\u0101ori as an official language of New Zealand and the launch of Te Wiki o te reo M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n
He was a young student at Victoria University in the early 1970s when he and others began the work that would later be recognised as historic.<\/p>\n
Tom Roa outside Parliament in 2022 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the M\u0101ori Language Petition, watched by the Deputy Prime Minister at the time, Grant Robertson. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
Talking about the movement\u2019s early days, Roa remembers catching the overnight train from Wellington to Auckland with others on Friday nights, petitions in their bags. <\/p>\n
While wealthier New Zealanders flew or drove, the group moved through the carriages, talking with other passengers about the \u201ctreasured\u201d language. <\/p>\n
The group gathered signatures all the way north \u2014 and again on the journey back.<\/p>\n
Roa said he did not recall anyone pushing back.<\/p>\n
Creating strong advocates<\/p>\n
Now a professor in Te Pua W\u0101nanga ki te Ao, the Faculty of M\u0101ori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato, Roa is internationally respected for his work in M\u0101ori linguistics and translation. <\/p>\n
He said he has worked across cultures and institutions, and believes the strongest advocates are not created through argument but through exposure and relationship.<\/p>\n
Professor Tom Roa at the University of Waikato. Photo \/ Tom Eley<\/p>\n
Roa said these days it seems as if \u201cthe louder you are, the more attention you get\u201d, but he dislikes this dynamic and has challenged it.<\/p>\n
To him, this also means telling people calmly, but directly when they are out of line.<\/p>\n
Even though it might change nothing in the moment, at the very least, it makes clear where he stands.<\/p>\n
In his view, beneath the volume of modern debate remains a quiet openness if people are met with respect rather than rhetoric.<\/p>\n
He said he recalls a moment from one of his university classes. <\/p>\n
A man in his mid-70s enrolled in his class with the intention of proving there was no value in learning te reo M\u0101ori as English was the only language that should be spoken, he told Roa.<\/p>\n
Kaum\u0101tua Professor Tom Roa on the historic train trip to Wellington for the third reading of Ng\u0101ti Maniapoto’s settlement claim. Photo \/ Vaimaila Leatinu’u<\/p>\n
Rather than confronting him, Roa gave him time.<\/p>\n
Exposure to the language mattered, Roa said, but what mattered more was exposure to man\u0101kitanga, the culture of care, relationship-building and aroha.<\/p>\n
By the end of the course, the man had changed his views and even became an advocate in his own circles, Roa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s passed on now. I went to his tangi.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roa said he valued the man for his honesty and staying long enough to be changed.<\/p>\n
That ethic has guided Roa beyond the classroom.<\/p>\n
Outside the classroom<\/p>\n
Roa\u2019s service spans iwi governance with Waikato-Tainui, Maniapoto and the Apakura R\u016bnanga Trust, national leadership roles with the M\u0101ori Heritage Council and the New Zealand M\u0101ori Tourism Board.<\/p>\n
Since 2016, he has been working as a Crown-appointed member of the Waitangi Tribunal.<\/p>\n
Ng\u0101ti Apakura descendent kaum\u0101tua Tom Roa addresses the school children and guests ahead of speeches from women descendants of survivors of the 1864 attack on Rangiaowhia village. Photo \/ Caitlan Johnston <\/p>\n
While it\u2019s been busy, he found a way to juggle it all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the keyword in that is balance,\u201d Roa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving a good balance of ensuring that you\u2019ve got enough money to put food on the table, but also ensuring that you\u2019ve taken time to smell the roses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Te reo M\u0101ori not safe yet<\/p>\n
Despite k\u014dhanga reo, kura kaupapa M\u0101ori and growing mainstream visibility, Roa said he does not believe te reo M\u0101ori is safe yet. <\/p>\n
In too many spaces, he said, the default remains English. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor the language to survive, it has to be spoken. It has to be used,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Dropping a M\u0101ori word here and there is a good start, but survival required something more deliberate.<\/p>\n
The default, he said, must increasingly become M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n
Profesor Tom Roa in the Faculty of M\u0101ori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
In his view, there were parts of New Zealand where that is happening well and while these communities deserve to be celebrated, Roa is unsure whether it is enough.<\/p>\n
He said he is guided by a moment from his student days.<\/p>\n
At a hui of Te Reo M\u0101ori Society, a kaum\u0101tua who was later photographed leading the 1972 M\u0101ori Language Petition onto Parliament\u2019s grounds, addressed the group.<\/p>\n
The man said he was nearing the end of his life and when he meets his maker, he expected to be asked one question: What did you do with the treasure that was handed down to you?<\/p>\n
Roa said that question has stayed him ever since and shapes how he teaches, governs, and measures progress. <\/p>\n
His work is not about noise or recognition, Roa said. <\/p>\n
It is about whether te reo M\u0101ori will still be spoken naturally, confidently and by default when the next generation is asked the same question.<\/p>\n
Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. He previously worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNoise is not the same as progress.\u201d Roa\u2019s lifetime of service to the M\u0101ori language and education has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,12889,127387,1558,15364,48756,2964,7560,1362,127386,127385,130,2720,3927,117,111,43,139,32141,69,1118,29691,5202,6744,16413,18241,127384,131,1361,223,5134,1528,1524,379,80],"class_list":["post-213154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-aotearoa","tag-apakura","tag-been","tag-century","tag-companion","tag-half","tag-honours","tag-made","tag-maniapoto","tag-merit","tag-more","tag-mori","tag-movement","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-ngti","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-order","tag-part","tag-place","tag-professor","tag-reshaped","tag-roa","tag-than","tag-that","tag-the","tag-tom","tag-university","tag-waikato","tag-year","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}