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Nau mai, haere mai!

Welcome to our November Pānui!

It’s the 1st of December, which means that we’re nearly at the end of the year! However before we turn notifications off and put the togs on, it’s important to reflect on the month that has just passed.

Keep an eye out around mid-December for a special newsletter that will show our year in review, outlining the changes and mahi that we have put in throughout 2022! It might even include a nice photo of us all at our end of year catch-up.

I hope that the year is easing out smoothly for you all, and I hope that you read on to hear about some of the things that we’ve been up to recently.

Mā te wa – Staughm (on behalf of the IACT team)

Constellation-building in Whakatāne

Earlier this month, our co-lead Anjum went to Whakatāne to participate in a local group hui addressing colonialism and racism.

At the beginning of 2021 we started building on our 2020 conversations around belonging, and during this time Graeme (one of our facilitators) met Ruth Gerzon and learnt about WARU – the Whakatāne Association for Racial Understanding. WARU was a group that emerged out of questions of Te Tiriti accountability after the Springbok Tour in 1982 that focused on trying to lessen the impact of colonialism in Aotearoa.

Graeme and Ruth began talking about starting up something similar in Whakatāne that would build on the valuable advocacy that WARU had been doing in the past. We also saw the potential to link up with anti-racism work we had supported across the Nelson region.

We took the learning from WARU into our first meeting of a new group that brought together more than thirty people and generated insightful kōrero from a diverse range of people from the Whakatāne community and surrounding areas. Subsequent meetings have focused on building a vision for the group and a set of values and defining a focus for action going forward.

If you are interested in getting involved or engaged with the group, you can get in touch with Graeme or Ruth by email.

Also, keep an eye peeled on our socials in the not-too-distant future to see some of the awesome resources that WARU put together back in the 1980s!

Media as Allies

Media as Allies is a group project that we have been building up over some months while conducting research and hui, and this month we were happy to announce our mahi to the public with a press release!

The Media as Allies group wants to bridge the gap between the reality of what society looks like and what has been depicted through the media.

The group is planning media training for members in early 2023, and a potential symposium for media and community representatives later in the year.

If you want to read more about the kaupapa, or potentially want to get involved, you can find further information in the press release linked below.

Tūrangawaewae Stories Report

Tūrangawaewae is a National Iwi Chairs process for having conversations about belonging, which IACT has been using it to sit alongside other conversations we have run on belonging and inclusion.

Through both online and face-to-face huis, the kōrero we gathered from the conversations highlights the way that cultural background and experiences shape the way Pākehā and other Tauiwi define belonging and their place in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The new published report shares some case studies from the conversations, alongside a summary of what we learnt.

Get Involved

Keen for a Conversation about Belonging in your community?

Conversations about Belonging is a virtual road trip to collect stories of belonging from communities across Aotearoa New Zealand. We’re keen to collaborate with community organisations across the country to co-host group conversations and ask the questions:

• When do you feel like you belong?
• What stops you from feeling like you belong?
• What needs to change so you feel like you belong?

The data we gather from these conversations will help us identify areas where we can bring people and communities together to increase belonging and inclusion across Aotearoa New Zealand. It will also help us draw out the main themes to guide our project going forward. This is how the data from our 2020 research was used.

It’s important to us that we understand the identities, values and emotions that underpin belonging and inclusion today. It’s also equally important that communities are engaged in solution making and are given space to share and amplify their voices and experiences.

If you’re interested in having a Conversation about Belonging in your community, especially if you haven’t already had one – we’d love to hear from you. Send an email to [email protected] to have a chat.

A more inclusive Aotearoa New Zealand needs collective leadership and action. We invite you and your community to connect with us and others working for an inclusive society.

If there are any individuals or groups in your community/networks who don’t know about us, but would tautoko our kaupapa, please do invite them to subscribe to our pānui or follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter. You can also direct them to our website to learn more about us, or they can email us if they have specific questions about collaborating with us.