WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A teenage thrash metal band screams out Maori lyrics in its latest videos. A popular radio host is learning New Zealand’s indigenous language and sharing new vocabulary with his audience.

And residents of Merivale Retirement Village in Christchurch are studying Maori, greeting one another in the language that had been unspoken by most of them.

“It’s one of the great regrets of my life, that I haven’t been able to speak Maori or understand it,” said one resident, Nancy Rogers, 93, who is Pakeha, the widely used Maori word for a New Zealander of European descent.

Maori is having a revival across New Zealand. Indigenous people are increasingly embracing their language, rejecting generations of stigma and shame associated with its use. And white New Zealanders are looking to Maori language and culture to help them make sense of their own cultural identity.