Indigenous knowledge, cultural responsiveness

 Our whare!     

I have learnt to love our whare as I get to know it more and more - from taking my classes in to meet the Matua, and experience and hear things Maori. My students are from Korea,China, Japan, Syria, Taiwan. 

Indigenous knowledge is not just about Maoritanga - it is about people. And this is the great advantage we have in Aotearoa: my school and our government have programmes and incentives for Maori and pakeha to lift the use and profile of te reo and Maori culture in all aspects of school life. While we are seeking to address "the accumulation of achievement gaps year on year" (Bishop 2012) and our PTC 1, 2, 3 and 4 support the opening up of Maori treasures within our classroom - that is the treasures of cultural knowledge and experience of Maori identifying students - while we are seeking to address these issues, we are also practising just those skills that we need to embrace change for the 21st century learning environment: values of being committed to the good for all people, respecting oneself and others, and the key competencies involved in thinking, relating to others and working together.

Recently I began to familiarise my students, with the help of our Matua, with the whare protocol and their feeling comfortable there. Later in the year we are visiting a marae. But my mindlab adventure and the ongoing PD in my school encourages me to open up to Maoritanga in a more meaningful way. That means opening up to myself, opening up to the diverse backgrounds of my students and in the end becoming more open to respect and hear every individual I'm going to meet in my daily life. That sounds like peace to me. And better collaboration. Better hearing one another's problems. And better collaborative solutions. I'm really excited. Because I think New Zealand is in a unique position that gives us a special advantage.

The new part of my indigenous journey is that I know now not to force it. Culture, like people, lends itself to being unwrapped gently. Not forced open. So I'm not going to give my students things to learn, but be ready with resources to supply them with knowledge and opportunities. I have an excellent booklet for teaching about the marae.

Te Kawa O Te Marae: A Guide for All Marae Visitors

Book by Wena Harawira. Edition 2009.Originally published  Reed N.1997. 

But I don't want to "teach" the marae, if anything like that could be attempted. I want to unwrap it, unfurl it before we get to our visit. After I reflected on our first visit with Matua in the whare, and the meal we invited him to in thanks,  I decided that perhaps through carving and tattooing we could arrive at an understanding of the people. 

So I have begun a short voyage into moko and non-maori tattoos - kirituhi.  

A website  about mokos http://www.zealandtattoo.co.nz/tattoo-styles/maori-tattoos/  has already opened up our understanding of koru, hei matau (fish hook), twists, hei tiki and patterns like pakati, unaunahi. 



I am hoping this will naturally lead us to learning about local and South Island iwi. Let our journey be one of discovery, innovation, collaboration and sharing.

I am now convinced that the endeavours in Aotearoa New Zealand over the last forty years with Treaty negotiations and te reo efforts, combining with the more recent PTC requirements and PD drive to recognise culture and reward and encourage each of us to be ourselves, is going to pay great dividends in the multi-cultural, collaborative future which the digital age has framed for us. We are possibly better equipped for international cultural responsiveness and even interdisciplinary work than other countries who have not had to work through the Treaty and these issues of culture, identity and belonging.

I understand an agentic position as a teacher needs to include not only the "historical links between culture, ethnicity, class and the education system" (Gutschlag, 2007) and that responsiveness can mean challenges on the way, but I am sure we have a head start. And that makes me excited for our education system and country.

 The Pouakai, largest known eagle in the world, now extinct. Once soared the plains from Canterbury to South Canterbury.

I know now that my turangawaiwai ngakau, the place that is home, is Aorangi, South Canterbury. And also France, Italy and Germany where I spent many years, have many friends and whose languages I'm fluent in. As my Asian adult class learn their own mihis, they will also be opening up their pathway into indigenous knowledge and relationships. As Bishop said the future is "relation based education". We've got to get to know one another better.

References

Bishop, Russell (2012). A culturally responsive pedagogy. Source: Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994

Gutschlag, A.  (2007) Some Implications of the Te Kotahitanga model of teacher positioning. New Zealand Journal of Teachers' Work. 4(1), 3-10. 

Harawira,W. (1997).Te Kawa O Te Marae: A Guide for All Marae Visitors. Reed, New Zealand.