Mana o te whenua - Awa

The Rauhuia: Terenga Huihuinga | Symposia Series aims to share leadership perspectives, concepts, and contexts with the profession based on themes that have come from the profession.

The next online symposium takes place on Thursday 23 November 2023 from 4:00pm to 5:30pm. Mana o te whenua – Awa, it explores leadership and how we can engage and learn from our own contexts to grow our community network of support.

Dr Mike Paki

He kupu whakamohio, kupu whakapapa

Tuatahi, e huri aku whakaaro ki ngā kāhui mate o tērā pito, o tērāpito, ka tika, me mihi, ka tangi hoki tātou mō koutou. Nō reira, ngā urio Hine-nui-te-pō, haere atu rā, haere, haere atu rā, hoki atu rā.

Tuaruatia, ki ngā purapuratuawhiti, koutou e takahia ngā huarahi e horohia temāramatanga ki roto i ngā hinengaro maha o te ao nei, koutou ngā pukenga o te pōari rā,tēnā rā koutou, tēnā rā koutou katoa.

Briefly, my name is Micheal Paki, nō Ngāti Apa, Ngāti Tuwharetoa and through my mother I have connections to Antrim in Northern Ireland.

I hold a Phd in Indigenous Studies from Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, focussing upon Indigenous identity and education; and Bachelor and Masters degrees in Māori Laws and Philosophy and a Postgraduate degree in Social Work and Supervision from Te Wānanga o Raukawa. I also hold sundry other academic qualifications that assist in my work in various spaces and places.

I wear a number of ‘hats’ from the privileged position of being “Koro” to a number of mokopuna, kaumatua of Ngā Ariki hapū collective in Turakina, as well as a number of schools plus the NZDF, to being a PLD facilitator for a number of iwi, and a Cultural advisor to a number of institutions. I sit on Te Paepae Mātauranga o Te Ranga Tupua, and also train people across various sectors to ensure they are safe working in different cultural settings, and the people they work with are also safe.

In my spare time I develop and facilitate training and educational curricula, including the Takitini Hauora Iwi Place based Curriculum across various sectors, based upon and directly informed by Iwi Placed Based ways of being, doing and knowing.

Hei anō, tēnā anō ngā mihi atu ki a koe, korua rānei

Ngahina Transom

A muri ki mau ki tēna kia mau ki te kawau marō, whanake ake, whanake ake!

He uri tēnei no Ngāti Manaiapoto, Te Rarawa ki Hokianga, Mōkai Pātea hoki.

Ko Ngahina Transom ahau.

Ngahina Transom, Principal of Frimley Primary School since March 2022, Deputy Principal 2018-2022. Frimley School, English medium has 550 ākonga in a diverse student roll, with 42 per cent Māori, 10 per cent Pasifika, 24 per cent Indian/Asian and 38 per cent Pākehā.

Ina kei te mohio koe ko wai koe, I anga koe I hea, kei te mohio koe, kei te anga atu ki hea. If you know who you are and where you are from, then you know where you are going. This whakatauki motivates and inspires me to continue my personal and professional commitment to ensure that these tāonga tuku iho thrive in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Ngahina sees her role in leadership as one that is to ensure that practises are culturally safe and that at the beginning of any decision, stakeholders are always included alongside the school’s staff. She says that “By practising our tīkanga as the “normal” way we do things here at our kura, provides a learning experience for all those present, to share in, not only what we are seeing, but what we are feeling and hearing.”

Frimley’s curriculum, Ngā Ara Matauranga, is based on a relationship with mana-whenua, where the school ensures that tamariki know, understand, and experience learning that is rich, authentic and relevant to past and present.

The following tauparapara lays the foundation for the school’s place-based curriculum which is conceptualised through the Ngāti Kahungunu pēpeha;

Heretaunga ararau, Heretaunga hauku nui, Heretaunga raorao haumako,

Heretaunga Haaro o te kaahu, Heretaunga Takoto noa

Ko Takitimu te waka, Ko Ngaruroro te awa, Ko Kahuranaki te maunga,

Ko Ngāti Kahungunu te iwi.

There is a school expectation that te reo is integrated and woven into all learning and that everyone in the kura is a learner. Te reo has been a professional expectation since 2018. All of Frimley’s kaiako and kaiawhina set goals, have weekly internal lessons, and have defined expectations in their roles and responsibilities to uphold in the kura.