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Finnian, a Kapiti College pupil, originally wrote the speech for a school competition last year. However, his passionate plea for New Zealanders to pronounce Maori words correctly has since gone viral after being shared on YouTube.
To date, the video has gained over 190,000 views and has been picked up by BBC News and The Guardian, to name a few.
“People hate English being pronounced incorrectly, especially their names, but yet, is it fine for people to go around pronouncing Maori names incorrectly?” he says in the video.
“This issue isn’t even about learning Te Reo, it is about basic respect, and people deserve to be respected.”
The teen has been awestruck by the largely positive reaction to his video, telling Stuff.co.nz he thought it would get just “a couple of hundred views”.
“I didn’t expect this at all, it’s pretty amazing,” he said.
Watch a clip from the inspiring speech below:
