Tū Māia 2025 - Tāmaki Makaurau Reflections

Honor Nathan: I think there were emails that were coming out sort of promoting Tū Māia. I seen it was around cultural competency, having a better understanding around te ao Māori. Āe.  He Māori ahau, but perhaps it could help me to help educate others.  

Shanti Patel: I am a New Zealand born Indian.  I'm a strong Indian, a Gujarati.  I come from a certain area in India. I am proud of being Indian and I want to know what makes people proud to be Māori. And I have to learn about that and have to learn about their history. I have to learn about their worldview. It's important, It's really important.  

James Morris: Understandably quite anxious before starting yesterday, walking in, not understanding the protocol or like what I'm meant to do with myself, and then understanding like very quickly that you feel very comfortable and safe with everyone and I felt that the whole way through.  

Sarah Williams: Well I know, Tū Māia has done about 3 rounds I think and I have wanted to do it but it felt like the right time moving into a new team and really thinking about how to support the mahi of my team and the tamariki and whānau that we support.  

Honor Nathan: Our Kaiako are beautiful they have a beautiful ahua about them. So they make you feel comfortable.   

Sarah Williams: They’re very encouraging and they're really fun and I love the jokes. I absolutely love it.  

If you’re flat that's fine. Nobody will judge you. Nobody.  

Sarah WIlliams: But there's a serious message behind that too, which is, you know, like the kaupapa of this wānanga. Feel the fear and do it anyway, you know, jump in. And they really, I think, have really brought the message to bear, which is you don't, you don't have to have it perfect before you can actually make some change or you can speak to te reo. You don't have to be perfect, you just have to give it a go.   

Nathan Eady: I think one of the key learnings that I've probably taken away from this programme is the systemic racism that still exists in New Zealand today.  You know, we all have to work together to combat systemic racism. And I think that's just done by keeping te reo alive in the workplace, having those conversations and feeling brave to kind of call out something when it needs to be called out. Having those confrontational conversations.  

Shanti Patel: The aha moments is the sadness of what colonisation does to our cultures. And then when I learn things, that sadness comes up again and I feel you know, how, how, how long do you have to keep battling against colonisation? Yeah.  

Sarah Williams: The concept of whakapapa and connection, both for the whānau we work with but also for ourselves has has really deepened my understanding that that has deepened. The values are not just words on the page or things that I've memorised in an interview, but actually starting to think about what's underneath those. How do they connect?   

Paulo Paulo: Did I learn anything about myself? Yep, I learned that I know some stuff, I'm just too shy to say it. I learned that I actually have confidence, it just needed to be tapped into.