Te Whakamānawa for Facilitators - Reflections Module One - Ko Wai Tātou / Who Are We?

How well do I know myself?

This learning has been very contentious and made me realise just how little I know about my ancestry and past. A week after completing this module, I was contacted by a distant relative who has put together a Maddren Family site of all the family history back several generations. Very timely and well-received.

Part of the module was to look at my cultural iceberg and reflect on it.

Reflecting on my cultural iceberg made me realise some of my unconscious bias and its implications in the relationships with other people, organisations etc.

These are a few of the components of my cultural iceberg:

• A strong sense of fairness and justice
• Strong time management skills and living my life to time
• Communication that includes minimal physical touch, hugs and affection
• Strong respect for elders
• Grown-up being seen, not heard
• Very much a mentality of apprenticeship and doing your time before you become a leader
• Males role in a partnership?

How you feel your whakapapa has impacted your worldview and how you live your life? 

As with many of my generation living in the southern parts of New Zealand, I grew up in a white world with no knowledge of Te Ao Maori all through my school years or tertiary years. In my early teen years, the Waitangi Tribunal gained momentum, and large settlements were made with lots of resentment felt by the local communities.

Over the last eight years, my knowledge of the past and understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi has opened my eyes. I think my world view has changed a lot. I am a bit disappointed I never learnt these things growing up!

How you think your whakapapa might impact and influence how you facilitate the learning of others? 

This is changing and will change more as my knowledge and understanding is established more. At the moment facilitation around culture and equity is a bit worrying however as a pakeha it is important I am brave enough to challenge my colleagues, friends and whānau to also look at themselves and how bias in their teaching or interactions impact on others.

This is the pepeha I have been using for the last seven years.

I now need to rework this as I am not tangata whenua I can not claim Aoraki as my mountain, however I can state that I am in the shadow of Aoraki.

Here is the start of my new pepeha

Tēna koutou kua huihui mai nei 

Greetings everyone gathered here

E mihi ana ki te mana whenua, Ngāti Moki

Greetings / I acknowledge manawhenua 

Nō  ōku tipuna Madron, Cornwall

My ancestors are from Madron, Cornwall

I tae mai ōku tipuna ki Aotearoa i te tau kotahi mano waru rau whitu tekau ma wha

My ancestors arrived in NZ in the year 1874