Tū Māia 2025 - Te Waipounamu Reflections

If it's your first time here, waewae tapu…it’s a pōwhiri. You must come through the waharoa and the first call of the day is our wahine with a karanga

Margaret Finney: I guess Tū Māia has been talked about on our site for quite a while and it's had some really positive feedback. People seem to have really found it meaningful. I've found being in New Zealand, and particularly in Oranga Tamariki as we move through the bi-cultural practice change, that I feel it's an area that I don't know much about. And I've really admired some of the ways, some of the ways that New Zealand works bi-culturally. And so I wanted to get a really deeper understanding of what they were about. So yeah, I thought it would be a really good opportunity to do that.  Our our tikanga and kawa, it will never die. It will never die. It will always be rivalry.

Jordan Nikora: I am an Iwi FGC co-ordinator, so I am an external partner. So I'm employed by an NGO in Invercargill and contracted to my mahi at Oranga Tamariki. As I've grown up, it was always, you know, to to have the best in this life, you kind of had to learn in te ao pakeha, like English, Science, Maths, you had to be really good at those things. I've realized how important and amazing it is to be Māori. So any opportunity that I have to learn about te ao Māori, I'm all over it. And especially if it's going to enhance, you know, my knowledge and position as Iwi co-ordinator.

Rebecca Premadasa: I saw that they were offering opportunities for past students to be able to participate in the Tū Māia program again. And I had a wonderful time in Whakatāne. I think it was at a stage in the organization where there was sort of like a cultural revolution happening and a revival happening and the organization was really getting behind building the competency of the kaimahi.

Margaret Finney: You know, I am a European person and so it's not, it's a very new set of concepts to me. So I actually found it sort of quite interesting coming in with an open mind and thinking, I don't really know what I'm going to learn, but I'm open to learning it.

Margaret Finney: I've loved learning the waiata and what I've particularly loved this morning was learning what the, what the gestures meant and how they omitted into the, to the meaning of the words because I think, you know, I've watched gestures and I thought, aren't they beautiful? But now I, I sort of see why they're there. And that's been, I really enjoyed that.

Tahau Thompson: Waiata is an expression of kotahitanga, it brings people together. And yes, it's uncomfortable because you might not be able to hit all the notes or your left hand doesn't wiri like your right hand, all of those things. But we're using waiata as a waka. In there is the celebration of reo, in there is the celebration of kotahitanga because we stand side by side. But also waiata, the the simple act of doing something alongside someone else can help lift the heaviness that could have been present in the teaching and the learning and in the wananga. Are we going to be seeing a Tū Māia kapa haka team anytime soon? Yeah, probably not. But that discomfort in learning, whether it's waiata or learning about Te Tiriti or learning about Māori values or purakau, it's, it's really just showing the student that we've got to get comfortable being uncomfortable. We've got to be open minded to new learning and having a waiata present or karakia present as a learning outcome in every noho is a great way to kind of push them into that space.

Margaret Finney: I've loved the pacing of the learning. I was a bit worried that we'd be right into it and it'd be really intense, and I think it's been a really lovely combination of keeping things, keeping the learning moving, the momentum. I think it's been a highlight for me. The sense of fun, the way of integrating the activities has been good.

Margaret Finney: The only other time I've stayed is during my social work degree, so I think I felt this time much more aware, I guess, of what it meant to be spending the night on the marae.

Paula Cumming: Oh, I was a little bit nervous about sleeping. I had a guy sleeping next to me last night. Oh, I haven't had a guy sleeping next to me for many years.

Margaret Finney: Things like eating together and sleeping together, They're very, they're quite vulnerable things as well. Like, you know, we don't, we don't often share our sleeping space with a lot of people that we haven't chosen, if you know what I mean, Like so. And I think that that really does build that ability to then connect on some of the learning in a different way.

Apiti Tihei Maihi: Tū Māia is further knowledge or a training that will assist you to do your mahi well. I've observed a lot of laughter. I've observed a lot of tears. The program is quite confronting for all involved. I have observed a safe environment where there's no judgement, no putting others down.

Margaret Finney: I think last time we talked, you know, it's just sort of getting into the, the feel of what it was going to be like. And then the, the middle wānanga that we did was just really, really moving. It was really profound.

Jordan Nikora: The last, our last noho back in August was quite an emotional one for me. I had a big crying moment there about not having my reo. So I didn't think that I was going to be as emotionally impacted by this experience as what I was.

David Blake: I felt like it, you know, I, I recognized I've lived quite a privileged life and I think that it, that was brought up in a way that was, was respectful and showing disparities between not only the people we work for, but the people we work with and where people come from.

Paula Cumming:

I'm doing te reo level 2 as well, but it's so it's weaves it all weaves together, you know, it's really good. But it's helped me to know that it's OK for me to push to support Māori or to stand up and have a say. Whereas before I started Tū Māia , I might not have done that. Where I, in my little unit where we work, my manager and and my colleagues are really supportive of us growing in terms of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori. So I've got a really good group that can support that.

Rebecca Premadasa: The the knowledge and the the understanding that we are gaining from Tū Māia is much easier to apply to the work that we're doing directly with tamariki and whānau because you're able to take it and apply it to every interaction that you have directly with the communities that we serve.

Tahau Thompson, Kaiako

He kupu kōrero tēnei ki a koutou, ngā ringaringa, ngā waewae o te kaupapa nei, tēnei kua heri nei, kua tōia nei i ngā mate nui o roto i te roanga o tēnei terenga o Tū Māia. Ka tika rā ka mihi ki tō mātou Arikinui a Kīngi Tūheitia, ana, kua ngaro atu, ko tāna e ārahi nā i te tira ki tua ki te pō. Engari i tēnei wānanga, te wānanga tuatoru ki runga o Rehua Marae ka tika rā ka rere nei i ngā mihi ki runga i Te Arikinui a Tumu me tōna Whare Arikinui tonu, Te Whare o Te Heuheu e tangi mokemoke nei ki tō rātou Ariki i tēnei wā. Ā taihoa ake ēnei mihi ko te roanga me te aroha nui o Tū Māia, o Te Wai Pounamu ki runga o Rehua Marae ki a koutou, e pōhara nei, e tangi nei, e apakura nei. Mauri ora.

This is a message to you, the staff and teams of this programme who have conveyed and carried those who have passed away throughout the duration of this cohort of Tū Māia. I think it appropriate to acknowledge the Māori aristocrat, King Tūheitia, who succumbed to illness and lead our loved ones to their eternal rest. However, in terms of this, the third wānanga at Rehua Marae, we rightfully express our condolences to the paramount chief Tumu and his noble household, the House of Te Heuheu, who currently grieve in solidarity for their departed chief. It is with these sentiments that we from Tū Māia, at Rehua Marae in the South Island express our sympathy to you who are poverty-stricken, mourning and lamenting because of your loss. May good fortune be bestowed upon you.