New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said her newborn daughter will be raised speaking Māori and English.
Ms Adern returned to work this week after taking six weeks' maternity leave following the birth of her baby, Neve Te Aroha, with partner Clarke Gayford.
“I certainly want her to learn Māori. We haven’t just made that decision, though, about how that will happen," Ms Ardern told Māori Television.
“It's an official language. It builds our understanding of Māori culture as well. For me, language is what sits at the heart of that.”
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford with her daughter Neve. Source: AAP
Ms Ardern said she had hoped to learn Māori while on leave.
“I actually had ambitions of doing that while I was on leave so, yeah, that’s still a project for us," she said.
The 38-year-old also spoke about why she gave her daughter a Māori name.
“We would somehow reflect in Neve’s name the generosity and kindness that was being shown to her, particularly on marae. Te Aroha, we thought, captured that and also at the same time captured my turangawaewae as well," she said.
Ms Ardern's government aims to create a bilingual New Zealand and make te reo Māori universally available in public schools by 2025.
