The Nugget: Scotty Morrison

Broadcaster Scotty Morrison (Ngāti Whakaue) is passionate about te reo. In fact the only thing he’s probably more passionate about (apart from his family of course) is his beloved home town, Roto-Vegas. Mind you, Rotorua may as well have been the entertainment capital Las Vegas, given he grew up there with his famous rellies; entertainer Sir Howard Morrison and actor Temuera Morrison.

Scotty reckons all he inherited was tone deafness and two left feet, although the latter probably helped him with some hard-to-tackle footwork on the footy field, where he proudly emulated his dad John by making the BOP rep team - as well as the NZ Māori team and NZ Sevens squad.

Growing up Scotty didn’t speak te reo Māori. Few did then. Things changed when he went to Waikato University in 1991. His first grade? A “very lucky C-minus” (your secret’s safe with us mate).

Luckily for him he went flatting in his second year with native te reo speakers. Survival kicked in as he quickly learned his first words; E hika, nā wai taku kai i kai? (Hey who ate my dinner?) and Nāku ngā utauta kai i horoi inapō, e hoa (I did the dishes last night cuz).

For the last ten years Scotty’s taught Māori and The Treaty at universities, (Mastermind Fact: he’s also related to Treaty co-author Governor William Hobson) and enjoyed a career in broadcasting as host of Māori news show Te Karere.

He’s also given talks on te reo at Oxford, been an actor, and has co-written four books on learning te reo with wife Stacey. Oh yeah, for good measure he’s also hoping to achieve a karate black belt with two of his kids this year.

All of which means he’s a busy man - wearing lots of different hats. And clothes - like his favourite 3 Wise Men kit, which includes this suit (The Harley, $700 includes 2 pairs of pants), shirt (The Vanguard, $120/3 for $300), shoes (The Santana $230/2 prs for $333) and belt ($60/3 accessories for $150). It all goes particularly well with the awesome whalebone Kotiate - given to him by Stacey – that he wields here.

Yep it’s a busy life but a great life Scotty reckons - “Every day I get to have a positive impact on the normalisation of Māori language. How good is that?”

Well said mate. Now read on for a bit more that he’s well written too.