Want to learn to introduce yourself in te reo Māori? This amazing pepeha generator has you sorted!

It's Māori Language Week and what better way to celebrate it than to learn how to introduce yourself in Te Reo Māori?

Ko Wai Ahau is nzherald.co.nz's pepeha generator that was made especially for Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori - Māori Language Week.

A pepeha is a way of introducing yourself in Te Reo Māori. It tells people who you are by sharing your connections with the people and places that are important to you.

Using a set structure, it identifies who you are, where you're from, and where you belong.

For Māori, pepeha points to whakapapa (ancestry). Whakapapa speaks to relationships and links with the land, the sea, the environment, our world and the universe.

The idea of pepeha is universal. Everyone has a pepeha that links them to their ancestors.

Ko Wai Ahau (Who am I) uses a very simple pepeha structure that identifies a mountain and body of water - river, lake, ocean - that is special to you or that you have lived by, a canoe or ship your ancestors may have arrived to Aotearoa on, the place you are from or reside at now, and your name.

This interactive graphic has been created by data journalist Chris McDowall and designed by Paul Slater.

This article was first published on the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.