MEDIANZ  VOL 17 NO 2 • 2017 https://doi.org/10.11157/medianz-vol17iss2id189 – ARTICLE – New Land, New Opportunities, New Language: Māori Television and Migrants Learning Te Reo Susan Nemec Abstract Te reo Māori is one of the official languages of New Zealand. Many migrants from non- English speaking nations, however, are surprised at the monolingualism of New Zealand and the apparent tokenism in use of te reo. Often migrants arrive ready to acquire a level of te reo Māori because of their own multilingual background. This paper explores the extent to which Māori Television provides cultural resources for migrants to increase te reo skills and vocabulary and to engender an interest for further engagement with te reo Māori, and suggests that engaging in learning te reo contributes to Māori Television’s language revitalisation outcomes. Improved understanding of the distinctive use of te reo Māori within the everyday lexicon of New Zealand English contributed to a sense of belonging for many of the participants. All of these findings suggest the level of support migrants can offer Māori language revitalisation initiatives may be unrecognised. Te reo Māori is one of the official languages of New Zealand. Many migrants from non- English speaking nations, however, are surprised at the monolingualism of New Zealand and the apparent tokenism in the use of te reo. Migrants arrive in New Zealand ready to engage with a level of te reo acquisition because they often come from sophisticated multilingual backgrounds where speaking and understanding many languages on a daily basis is not uncommon. Viewing Māori Television is one way such expectations can be fulfilled. This paper, taken from a larger quantitative and qualitative research project of 70 migrants, presents findings from the qualitative section comprised of 25 participants from a range of ethnic backgrounds talking about their experiences of and observations on their engagement with te reo Māori via Māori Television in either focus group discussions or one-on-one interviews. Susan Nemec is a PhD Candidate in Film and Media Studies at the University of Auckland. She has a background in producing and directing for both broadcast television and corporate video productions. More recently she has been teaching English and Media Studies at large Auckland multicultural secondary schools. Her research was first inspired by her experience of teaching refugees and new migrants and conversations with their parents.