Hona Black (Ngāi Tūhoe, Te Whānau ā Apanui, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) is a lecturer at Te Pūtahi-a-Toi: School of Māori Knowledge at Massey University. Black’s first book, He Iti te Kupu: Māori Metaphors and Similes, has been extended in a second volume, Te Reo Kapekape; Māori Wit and Humour.
Did you grow up speaking te reo Māori, or are you more of a Renaissance man?
We spoke only te reo Māori when I was growing up in Palmerston North in the 1990s. It started at home, then kōhanga, then kura kaupapa. I didn’t learn English until I was about 11, when I started having English classes at school.
Had your parents been on a similar linguistic path?
Dad was raised in Ruatoki, in the Bay of Plenty, and his mother was very staunch
