He Iho Reo, a Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga project which looked at how families pass on the Māori language to their children has resulted in the development of a new Māori Language App, called 'Aki'.

Associate Professor Poia Rewi, Dr Katharina Ruckstuhl and their team from the University of Otago, developed this App from the work completed on He Iho Reo, which was focused on developing a “tool-box” which would support Māori language transmission and maintenance.

The aim of the research was to support local tribal and community language initiatives by developing a language intervention “tool-box” informed by the in-home observations conducted in the study, as well as national and international research.

Aki was subsequently developed from this research, and is now available as a free download from the Apple store. The app attempts to further develop Māori language vocabulary and phrases through involving partcipants in an interactive game.

It is the culmination of many years of research which started in 2010 and continues through to the present day. They are currently seeking more funds to develop the Android version of the App.

Professor Poia Rewi and other members of the team recently presented their findings on the project to Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga's International Research Advisory Panel (IRAP).

You can link to download this app at the iTunes store:
https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/aki/id906928194?mt=8