Research

When you’re the dominant culture everything is normalised as “this is us.” We Māori have to consciously fight to put our culture in the space where it can become visible.

Seeing what happens when you have people from around the world come, because this programme happens around the world, but this is the only one that happens on the marae. About 30 or 40 that run in the world. It’s interesting running this non-Māori thing in a Māori space. People realise that when they come on the marae, they are being welcomed there. Those are meaningful too in a Māori world view. Transformative moment for Pākehā, that my ancestors matter, or my descendants matter. And having this conversation, you start to think about yourself in connections.

I think that worldviews being able to meet, would best happen on a marae. There are a lot of things you can’t talk about in a Western context, which you can on a marae.

My son was doing Matariki at school, and we went to my mother-in-law's house, and she is [a] white older racist woman. And he told her about Matariki, all the things he learned at school, and she never knew about it [Matariki] before.

I feel like people have stopped following values embedded in Te Reo Māori. When I was small, my grandmother used to cut my hair according to phases of the moon etc, and when I came to NZ, I was shocked to find out that similar practices were in Māori culture. Our cultures are very similar, but I believe capitalism has pushed us away from indigenous ways of life - for me these practices are about intuition and love.

In terms of the system, it would be surprising and heartening, when and if Māori are asked what works for them, that they are listened to and that it is then implemented.

I used to sit in a room with registrars new to Aotearoa. I’d just sit and talk like how we are, I’d say “Did you know about tangata whenua before you landed here?” Out of the 6 [in the room], maybe one put their hand up, another that halfway put their hand up. I’d say “you wouldn’t know that our people talk to our dead.” That blew them away. “You would know that people like yourself would call that schizophrenia.” Non-Māori don’t know, and they put us in schizophrenia. They would say “that is the best learning we’ve got since coming to Aotearoa”. Our people talk to our dead, and that’s a gift. [relates to mental health services and establishing Māori services]

It’s about clearing the space and when you do mihimihi – you get told why are you doing this. People feel uncomfortable and I think good!! Lack of knowledge hey don’t know the history of the country. The amount of treaty training is limited. I have to do this yearly and we are constantly putting ourselves in uncomfortable positions. Instantly we don’t care about you and you will do it our way without the Māori.

Teaching about the navigation skills Pacific Islanders used to navigate the seas and trading systems had with other countries. This will empower Pacific Island students as they will know their ancestors were smart people.

I’ve got lived experiences about that. Most of my life I’ve worked in Māori mental health. As a user of mental health services, I was shoulder tapped by a person, who wanted me to design Māori mental health services. I didn’t even know how to run a computer. He said I can teach you that, but you need to design Māori mental health services. For Māori by Māori, in a mainstream government run organisation. I got shoulder-tapped, and I helped to design Māori mental health services and addiction services. Then to do the same thing in [xxx] DHB. That came from a base of power sharing in a mainstream health organisation. Kaumatua and kuia were paid salaries that were similar to psychologists. Lay people and elders to ensure that the service was according to tikanga Māori. It was non-Māori recipients along with non-Māori working in the services.

With the Māori-Pākehā thing, we have so much to learn from how Māori live on the land and how they care for it.

A lot to be learnt from how guesting and hosting works in powhiri, the power sharing. About manaakitanga and the powhiri. There’s something I’ve learnt recently, when you’re talking about manuhiri, the onus is on you to do that thing, to do that manaaki, to care for other people.

Working out the currents in the sea, navigating the stars. Knowledge. Māori look at knowledge as culture.

I’m interested in the role of Māori women and how they have been silenced with the colonisation. Māori women had strong roles, importance, and colonisers taught men that women were inferior to men. Women lost their voice with colonisation.

In my education I didn’t see enough local stories. Let’s pronounce things correctly in Māori. We want the same respect as others in terms of correct greetings, and correct pronunciation. But we also need to settle it within our own people.

[xx] is writing music with tauparapara in it - drawing on te reo as it’s been taught to her for alto female voice. So I’m trying to take that out to our communities, to Pākehā children, Māori children, so they can discover the music of both worlds, past and present, Māori and Pākehā.

Individual mindset not collective or long term considerations.A more indigenous mindset.

I believe many of the values at play centre had important Māori influence, and the way we were encouraged to express them were also highly respectful of Māori culture, which brought me to think Māori culture may be rich in exactly what we need now - an inclusive community.

Get it right for Māori and it’ll be right for all New Zealanders.

Change at the high school that I’m BOT for. First day the school opened, whole bunch of new children coming along with their parent or caregiver. First thing comes to my mind is how are they going to be welcomed. Usually the college will have all the Kaiako or teachers, headmasters etc on the stage. All the students in one part, new entrants and parents sitting somewhere else. I asked, “after that, is the connection being made? Or do we have anyone on a level ground, not have some on a stage and saying they are more important. Have the focus on the new entrants and their parents, they are the most important, you are our manuhiri, we welcome you so that you become mana whenua”. So we changed that, so no one is on the stage now, we have level seating. It’s like a powhiri. It’s the students who do the talking and the welcoming. So it’s about sharing the responsibility, so the headmaster will say some things, but the other students can say something in Te Reo or Malay, or anything they want to. Afterwards, you hear the change. A lot more conversation, a lot more relaxed. Somethings we can change now, some we can work towards.

Our education system, I really feel is usually something that most people do have some value in. It’s a big part to play in changed attitudes. In teachers’ curriculum, [we] have a whole page in the curriculum to address the Tiriti, and the wrongs of the past. Our education system has improved, has got better. Still a lot of improvement required. The Kōhanga reo movement made a big impression. Teaching system has a lot of potential.

Seeing what happens when you have people from around the world come, because this programme happens around the world, but this is the only one that happens on the marae. About 30 or 40 that run in the world. It’s interesting running this non-Māori thing in a Māori space. People realise that when they come on the marae, they are being welcomed there. Those are meaningful too in a Māori world view. Transformative moment for Pākehā, that my ancestors matter, or my descendants matter. And having this conversation, you start to think about yourself in connections.

Our media plays a large role in perpetrating negative stereotypes and racist hateful messaging of "others", unsure of how you change this other than insisting on more honest, respectful, understanding journalists and organisations. The Māori news networks seem to be far more respectful and understanding than mainstream.

There is a lot of hui but not much doing, realistically what can we do to make sure everyone at the table feels a sense of belonging. I think there's different strands of how that can happen. I think there's organic growth, accidental, incidental. There's deliberate things, programs, marae, so those are all potential things that are already happening on different levels. Look, there's no national statement on how to be inclusive.

One of the concerns I have, there is talk at Otago medical school of cutting back on Māori students. We need to have representation of our communities, we need to see that diversity. Inclusivity isn’t about including people, it’s about the legal frameworks and being able to give people the equal education opportunities and equal employment opportunities. That has to be much more strengthened.

I think that worldviews being able to meet, would best happen on a marae. There are a lot of things you can’t talk about in a Western context, which you can on a marae.

I read a paper of a woman researching people’s recollections of their childhood. In Samoa, she asked this girl, she didn’t have a recollection of being different from her sisters and brothers. It was a collective recollection. It was we did this, not I, I. In Māori, they have taua is us two, then us all. That latter is an entity.

I did some training with [local council] two years ago and they went straight into the meeting. No mihimihi or karakia – so sorry! It is so important that we do this, so it’s a safe space – we need to stop pause. Rather than this is our usual way, so let’s get into this. It will be interesting to see other people’s opinions around this and it won’t enter into their heads. I have a couple of friends and lots from the education sector who have been called into these meetings.

Help create hopefully the places where people feel like they belong. Working at school nourished and influenced a desire for collaboration, and providing a sense of belonging for everyone, based on Te Tiriti and principles. My desire to learn is a sense of belonging. Throwing out the ideology that to be Māori you have to be x, y and z, or to be a woman you have to be x, y and z.

Teaching [needs to be] that Māori is here - right here, you just need to recognise it. The flavour back then was a struggle. In Invercargill there were increasing numbers of Māori and Pacifica coming to the area for work. For Māori students, I was the first [Pākehā] teacher they met who pronounced their name correctly and they [the students] used to ask if I was Māori. Some years later, I was invited back to that school and they had a whare! And then there was kapa haka, and awareness of the culture! Wouldn’t have had that in my day. There is hope, but there is a long way to go.

What schools start here, taking kids to the marae. Cultural education is part of their curriculum. They are bussed to the marae, some of them stay overnight. What are they learning, but the culture of the place Who does it come down to if it is part of the curriculum?

I’m sick of being the tokenistic Māori in the room. Can I start the waiata? Can I do the karakia. Anyone can do a karakia. Anyone can do a waiata.