Tū Māia 2023 - Tāmaki Makaurau journey

Grainne Mallon: I think just over the last few years of my career, I've just wanted to build my knowledge and understanding of te ao Māori and really to kind of learn te reo as well. I still feel nervous and trying to speak te reo,  

Jennifer Cassidy: So I guess being a Pākehā woman in a social work context, I'm really hoping to develop my skills around engaging with Māori. 

Tessa Iese-Oraariki: I think for me it was just an opportunity to be in a space of te ao Māori to wānanga to kōrero and share space with my colleagues that you wouldn't normally. 

Rose Hawkins: I love the direction that we're going in and I want to understand as much as I can. So it's just a unique opportunity to be able to do it. 

Genae Thompson: I think the wānanga is is an awesome opportunity because it just provides and allows us to create that safe space, which we can't really achieve so much when we're in the online classes because they're shorter, they're more spread out. When we have the wānanga it’s more a condensed version of the learning and there's more time for full reflection. 

[Kōrero] 

Gloria Takuira: I think it was an opportunity for us to get to know each other. And I think that's the biggest takeaway that any of us could have asked for when we arrived and then walked away after the time we spent together. 

Bill Searle:To be honest, I was concerned about not being able to sleep, but actually that I slept not too bad. So that was that was a bonus for me. 

Maggie Ramalingam:When I walked in, I could just feel peace and a sense of happiness. You know, which I can’t explain the Māori are so passionate about retaining the languages and also the culture and the values, you know, which I can relate to, where I come from as well, you know. 

I think that the noho actually helped us to connect in our online classes for the past four weeks that we've had. And I think what it’s bought to the fore now, I think over time we've got to know each other well enough to feel better. I feel safe and in safe space to share our own truths or thinking.

Maggie Ramalingam: So what I have learnt is a lot of new terms, like cultural paralysis 

Denise Fox: What is that?  So it I guess it's about how somebody feels within a particular culture. And it can be not just culture, it could be any kind of paralysis. 

Jennifer Cassidy: And that's why what I did most reflecting on last night, and I think my cultural paralysis isn't around pronunciation.  I think a part of my journey that's been a part of me that's not wanted to be part of the colonisation group. I guess for me now it's just listening and being okay with knowing and hearing hurt without it necessarily being personal. 

Denise Fox: Understanding how you feel then helps you sort of put some solutions and some sort of problem solving in place around it. 

Annalise Sharp: And I guess that’s what what makes Tu Māia such a wonderful course is getting to connect with other people and kind of learn together.  

Genae Thompson: It's been a really good experience. It's nice that all of us kaitoro can express or teach things in our own way, using our own experiences.  So that's been really awesome to have a bit more freedom to deliver and play to our strengths. 

Mata Utanga: I'm 63 years around the sun, so what I am doing taking from Tu Māia is adding to my kete, my life experience and moving forward my understanding. It's all about if you like whakapapa within Oranga Tamariki, making connections. 

Rose Hawkins:I'm grateful that the organisation has offered this. I'm grateful that this is what we're up to.  It's a really good way of moving into the new practice of the organisation, prioritising things Māori. 

Genae Thompson: I'd just like to mihi to all of our ākonga who have just been amazing. We've seen so much growth and development in them as individuals coming and asking the types of questions, clarifying some things that now they're more empowered to kind of progress more in their learning journey. 

Scott Matapakia: The cultural paralysis that is the biggest kōrero that I've ever, you know, and I didn't know that the terminology as well, the wairua and ahua around it why people get in that space. 

Jennifer Cassidy: Unlearning a lot of my learning because I think we have grown in the space from when I first have learned about understanding te ao Māori  

Scott Matapakia: To be relational, restorative in my practice and everything that I do.

Jennifer Cassidy: And I think staying the night makes a difference. You know, I think even with my colleagues and I've met so many people from all over the place, from Oranga Tamariki. Anne Hamilton, Regional Litigation Manager 

Because this transcends the work environment. For me it's that personal journey of what I want to do and how I want to be as a New Zealander. And so I want to bring it into my children. I would love for them not to have to go through this process. 

Scott Matapakia, Social Worker 

Coming into this space. I already work in a oranga framework because I really believe the best plans are whānau plans tamariki and whānau-led plans. We are just, how do you put it connectors finding the right spaces to awhi our whānau whether that be through funding, through services through rongoā, through anything tikanga Māori services or anything like that. 

If whānau have a good plan and I'm all for it.