Christian Māori language school Te Wānanga Ihorangi has joined with Bible Society New Zealand to launch a Māori Audio Bible project, which aims to provide te reo Māori speakers access to listening to the entire text of the Bible in their heart language. 

The new partnership was launched at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Auckland and Te Wānanga Ihorangi and the Bible Society expect it will take three years to complete as each text is professionally recorded, mastered and distributed.      
The project will encompass all 66 books of the Bible, which BSNZ says will require a thoughtful and incremental approach. As significant milestones in the project come to fruition the recorded audio books will be shared with Māori-speaking communities, giving time to provide feedback and to celebrate the ongoing achievement as each stage is completed.                                   

Rev Te Karere Scarborough, who is the Mihinare Tumuaki (Co-Principal) of Te Wānanga Ihorangi, said the plan came about due in part to relationships between the newly opened wānanga and Bible Society staff, and their desire to use the Māori Bible as an ongoing resource for faith and language revitalisation.

“We are a faith-based Māori language school, and as such, this is one of the most important language resources we could get behind and get out there to communities.”

“We are an oral language people – and it only makes sense that this will be available to be ‘heard’ by our communities.”

Rev Te Karere hopes that Māori and Pākehā communities will support the project which is not fully funded at this stage.

“Recording, mastering, and distributing a high quality resource will take time and resources – so once the fundraising campaign is out there please get behind it.”