Dr Vincent Ieni Olsen-Reeder is a second language learner of te reo Māori, having started his learning at Victoria University of Wellington in 2008. Since then, the Māori language and its revitalisation have become his passion.

Ieni’s doctoral research investigated the effectiveness of bilingualism as a theoretical approach to revitalisation, and the ways in which a bilingualism approach could remove some of the anxieties surrounding Māori language use among Māori speakers. It is the University's first thesis to be written and defended in te reo Māori.