Hoe Ngā Tahi Newsletter - April 2023: Supporting Māori learner success

Two years ago, my mokopuna mātāmua arrived in Te Ao Marama, and so began a new chapter where I became the best human spoiler for my beautiful kaha rawe, lol. Our whānau have different experiences to tiaki this inquisitive being, so I liken this lived experience with the new chapter I have begun with Careerforce. It is new, exciting, confusing, overwhelming, yet familiar, and as the weeks have progressed, I have come to realise it will be a journey of transformation.

For 10-years I worked as a Kaimahi to support people living with physical and intellectual disabilities within a residential environment within the community. I then transitioned to a Māori Health provider founded in the values and beliefs of Iwitanga and where I served for 20 years as a Kaimahi, Team Leader, and provided the mandate to assess and create the Cultural Competence and Capability Strategy. While in this organisation I had experience supporting tāne Māori to transition from a psychiatric facility to the community, worked within Public Health and Health Promotions supporting all populations, and navigated Whānau Ora across the rohe of Waikato. These work experiences in hauora allowed me to understand the needs of the people we served and how best to meet these needs.

The expectation of myself within Careerforce is progression through transformation; to understand the education needs of ākonga, to be a supportive and constructive whānau member within Rōpū Taupuhipuhi Āmio, and to be an advocate for the values and beliefs of Careerforce | Te Pūkenga.

E manaakitanga kia tatou katoa

na Rachael

Navigators

One aspect of being Māori is to come from a long line of navigators. Navigators that travelled vast areas of ocean for centuries before making our way to Aotearoa. A people who utilised all that was around them and within them to successfully travel the largest ocean on earth, 1000 years before any other civilisation.

From navigating te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, they then went on to navigate the whenua of Aotearoa. The wild forest, the great Moa and the Hōkioi, (two of the largest known birds to roam the earth), cold and harsh conditions, and mountain terrains. Once again, using the tools they had within and around them to navigate, survive and thrive.

As Māori, a question that might be worth asking is, how do we take those same values and qualities our mātua tūpuna had and apply them to today’s world, in order to help us navigate the spaces we occupy today?

As ākonga, what are the tools and strategies required for you to navigate your learning journey? As our tūpuna experienced and adapted over the centuries, we are in a new space and time, with its unique obstacles. So, a challenge is to utilise our ancient knowledge to prevail and overcome our present day difficulties and to define for the next generation what it means to be ākonga Māori in 2023 and beyond.

Ruth Snowden has started a lot of things in her life that she hasn’t completed. “Something always got in the way, or I just lacked confidence,” says Ruth.

Thanks to her employer, Oceania Healthcare and Careerforce, Ruth is very proud to have successfully completed her Apprenticeship in Diversional Therapy.

“This has been a big accomplishment for me. I feel very proud that I’ve done it, and very thankful,” says Ruth.

Careerforce Apprenticeship Advisor Shane Bennett supported Ruth. “Shane was great. Once he helped with my understanding of the questions, I was away, I could fly! He was just brilliant,” says Ruth.

Ruth also gained confidence through attending a noho marae, provided by Careerforce’s Rōpū Taupuhipuhi Āmio / National Mobile Support team. These events offer kanohi-ki-te-kanohi (face-to-face) support for Māori and other learners working with the Te Ao Māori unit standards in their programme.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the ‘family gathering’ concept. To be able to sit with Māori and other cultures, and just grab knowledge from others who are going through the same apprenticeship was invaluable. We were able to learn from each other,” says Ruth.

“There was great encouragement from the tutors. I walked out of there feeling really uplifted, and thinking ‘I can do this, I can complete it to the end’. And now I feel very proud that I’ve done it.”