Adult Māori-language learners are an under-researched yet crucial part of efforts to revitalise te reo Māori. This paper presents and analyses a qualitative case study of the learning journey of Julian Wilcox. As an exemplar learner, Julian’s story helps to shed light on the factors that led to his development of proficiency in te reo Māori and these insights may have implications for other Māori-and Indigenous-language learners. We have used a framework based on the literature to analyse Julian’s story (narrative inquiry). This framework consists of three themes of successful adult Māori-language learning.

Mātauranga Māori has become commonplace in international sport events involving New Zealand athletes and teams to create a national identity. The heart of this article examines the journey and implementation of mātauranga Māori into the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth games teams at Athens 2004, Torino 2006, Vancouver 2010 and Delhi 2010. The experiences of one cultural advisor (referred to here as CA), who is also an ex-Olympian, are presented through an analysis that considers the principles of rangatiratanga and ōritetanga as advocated in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.