This year marks 20 years of its Maori language strategy Kotahi Mano Kaika, Kotahi Mano Wawata.
This translates to 1000 homes, 1000 aspirations, and refers to the vision of having 1000 Ngai Tahu homes speaking Maori by 2025.
Kotahi Mano Kaika tumu-manager Paulette Tamati-Elliffe, of Dunedin, has been leading the strategy to reinvigorate the language since 2010, and said tangible progress had been made since its launch in 2000.
"If we look back to 20 years ago we were living in a very different world.
"The Maori Language Act of 1987 saw te reo Maori become an official language but it wasn’t being upheld or valued by our wider society in those times.
"We have now a generation of youth or rangatahi that can speak te reo as a first language, the first generation in 100 years ... that’s big."
The focus of the strategy was on the intergenerational transmission of te reo, which has been identified as a key way of safeguarding and solidifying the language.
"If families are empowered to use te reo Maori as the language of communication we don’t have to rely on institutions or governments, iwi or schools."
Ms Tamati-Elliffe said "a few hundred" homes were using te reo through a wide variety of programmes on offer through Kotahi Mano Kaika, including families who were raising children in te reo.
"In the year 2000 a stocktake was made around the status of te reo Maori [in Ngai Tahu] ...
"We had the worst statistics in the country so the only way was up. We couldn’t do any worse."
This year, Kotahi Mano Kaika had a waiting list of those who wanted to take part in its programmes, Ms Tamati-Elliffe said.
"More and more families are connecting to their identity as Kai Tahu or Ngai Tahu, and the language is a vehicle which supports families to connect to that.
"The challenge for us going forward will be to continue that growth ... we have to make sure it’s a living language, not just a language of ceremony or institutions.
"We should be telling jokes in Maori and making up new idioms."
Ms Tamati-Elliffe and partner Komene Cassidy had raised three out of four of their tamariki (children) in te reo Maori.
She encouraged people to take part in the Maori Language Moment today at noon by participating in something involving te reo Maori such as listening to a waiata (song) or using the language.
"There’s a lot of fear around getting things wrong.
"We do understand it can be a little daunting. I do encourage everybody to just give it a go."
