Tākaro Tribe - Series 5, Episode 18

Television – 2023

This pre-school reo Māori series was the brainchild of director/producer Nicole Hoey, who aimed to make the language as accessible as possible. It centres around vowel characters A, E, I, O and Ū, five baby fairies who live in the enchanted Wāo Arapū (alphabet forest), and enjoy learning adventures guided by their Pāpā Rākau (tree father) and Kōkā (grandmother). In this 15 minute episode, the adorable fairies sing a song about paddling a waka, learn about time from a singing and dancing tiki, and even practise numeracy by counting birds, all in reo Māori. The show has enjoyed multiple seasons since 2018.

It's about making it as inclusive as possible. When you've got your kids in kōhanga reo there are so few things fully in te reo Māori, but we also didn't want to lock out the people who aren't ready for the 100 percent te reo Māori version.
– Creator Nicole Hoey on making te reo Māori and bilingual versions of the show, The NZ Herald, 16 May 2018