Māori language and culture

Here at Mind Of My Own we recently attended an hour long session on Māori language and culture as part of our efforts to understand more about the people and culture of New Zealand (also known as Aotearoa). It covered a wide variety of topics and was an incredible insight into the depth and history of Māori culture, although we know that this is only the start of our learning process.

Amplifying the voices and views of young people

No matter what type of organisation you are, understanding the culture of a new country is vital as part of growing your presence there. This is particularly important for Mind Of My Own. It would be impossible for us to amplify the voices and views of young people accurately if they didn’t feel that the language, pictures and phrasing of our apps reflected how they felt and saw the world. As a small example, if we asked someone who commonly referred to their evening meal as ‘tea’ what their favourite dinner was, any answer to that question would already be misrepresenting their views. We work with young people who may have battled their whole lives for their voices to be heard and it’s a huge responsibility for us to ensure that we represent them accurately.

Authentic voices in translation

We pride ourselves in the effort we make to understand young people – whether that’s our co-production work during a development cycle or the forums we host to gain a wide range of views from workers, everything we do is done with the end goal of hearing young people’s authentic voices.

To this end we have recently started working on a new Māori translation that will allow our apps to be available in both Māori and English when we launch in Aotearoa this year. We have worked closely with government approved translators as well as our existing New Zealand partners, our developers and graphic designers to ensure that every aspect of our apps reflects young people in Aotearoa’s lived experience and allows them to communicate in a way that feels comfortable. This includes changing the apps to reflect the words young people use, the food they eat and the people they live with.

We are incredibly proud of the work we’ve done so far and we’re excited to share further detail on our work in New Zealand later this year. In the meantime, if you have any questions about our apps and the work we’ve done to translate them into Māori, please feel free to get in touch at hello@mindofmyown.org.uk