Newsreader Mike McRoberts has said that he used to get extremely nervous saying ‘kia ora’ on the news every night.
McRoberts has been reading Aotearoa the six o’clock news for nearly twenty years, and that whole time, as is tradition, he has said “kia ora, good evening.”
In a documentary that aired last night with the same name as the iconic saying, he said that he felt honoured to be saying it, but also somewhat ashamed due to not having the knowledge of Te Reo he thought he should have as a Māori himself.
“This is my 18th year presenting the 6 o’clock news,” he said. “TV3 has always been ahead of the curve on Te Reo so when I started saying ‘kia ora, good evening’ it was part of a legacy of newsreaders.”
“I felt really proud to do so but I felt really anxious about it because I am Māori and I didn't have Te Reo. I would sit out the back of the studio going over and over in my mind the vowel sounds. It was terrifying.
"I used to get anxiety about even saying, 'kia ora, good evening' in case I got it wrong."
The emotional, vulnerable documentary comes during the 50th anniversary of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori and follows the McRoberts whānau as Mike “attempts to reclaim a taonga that was lost to his whānau a generation ago,” accordion to the show’s description on Three Now
To see a legend of Aoteroa broadcasting, a man that many whānau across the nation see at six o’clock every night, in such a vulnerable and raw way like is shown in ‘Kia Ora, Good Evening’ is important in helping others understand what te reo means to native speakers.
Shoutout out to Mike for putting himself out there and opening up.
