Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru (Blog)

Lorem Ipsum reo Māori

Te reo Māori alternative for Lorem Ipsum

Te Re Māori is an official language of New Zealand. It is the Indigenous language of New Zealand/Aotearoa. The use of Latin as a place holder, while an international practice, there is no reason why any Indigenous Peoples can not and should not promote their own identity with their own language.

Use of te reo Māori instead of latin lorem ipsum will beautify your designs by using the official indigenous language of Aotearoa New Zealand. The following text is secular, not tapu (noa) and has been vetted to be culturally neutral. It is already in the public domain and has historical meaning. It can be used by anyone without any copyright issues.

The lorem ipsum text nor the Māori alternative is not intended to be written or read, but merely a visual aid used by graphic designers, software developers, web site developers and some book/magazine publishers. Even more reason to use te reo Māori.

This Lorem ipsum alternative Māori version could be just a incoherent usage of Māori words. But why degrade such a beautiful treasure when there are other appropriate texts available?

Caution about using any Māori text

Consideration for the text that you use must be given. The origin and Iwi ownership of the information is also important. Information such as whakapapa, usage of personal names, landmarks and traditional knowledge should not be used.

Likewise, using Māori religious/mythology as a Lorem ipsum is equally offensive. Similar to the manner that you would not expect to see text from the Holly Bible, Koran, Tipitaka etc.

 Lorem ipsum Examples in te Reo Māori

The following random paragraphs have been copied from haphazard pages from the historical newspaper Te Waka Maori o Niu Tirani 1871-1877 sourced from Māori Niupepa Collection.

There are two sets here. One with no macrons to keep the test technically neutral. The other set I have added macrons and take no responsibility for errors.

The text can be shortened or duplicated as required.

With macrons

Without macrons

 

DISCLAIMER: This post is the personal opinion of Dr Karaitiana Taiuru and is not reflective of the opinions of any organisation that Dr Karaitiana Taiuru is a member of or associates with, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

2 responses to “Te reo Māori alternative for Lorem Ipsum”

  1. dan mace Avatar

    Tēnā koe e te Rangatira
    As a motion graphic designer I use lorem ipsum frequently in my work, and as a Māori I find most of my mahi is in a Māori space. I have used your version above many times, thank you som much for creating it.

    Engari rā, he pātai taku: Would it be possible to make a second version that includes macronised kupu? When I’m designing for text that is ultimately going to be written in reo Māori it would be very useful to see words with macrons to get a sense of how a particular font will look with Māori text.
    I note you removed macrons originally for more compatibility which made a lot of sense in 2017 because not many fonts supported macronised text, but things have changed. All webfonts and most opentype fonts have macrons built in. Some bespoke fonts still freak out with a macron.. but I just avoid those ones for mahi lol.
    Anyway I appreciate you have probably moved on from this kaupapa, and there are other ways of generating macron text (thanks to google translate), but I just thought I’d put it out there. When I google “Lorem Ipsum Māori) you’re the first (and only actually useful) hit – so maybe other people have come here and thought the same thing.
    Heioi, e maumahara ana au te whakatuaki “He tāonga te Reo” – he tāonga hoki tō mahi tēnei. Taku nei ngā mihi e maha ki a koe.
    Ngā manaakitanga
    Dan

    1. Karaitiana Avatar
      Karaitiana

      Kia ora Dan,
      Rawe! Good ideal I have now updated with the same text with what I think are the missing macrons.
      Ngā mihi mō tō pānui me whakaaro

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