E oho! Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Tamariki

Speakers

Hoani Lambert, Tanja Schubert-McArthur, Sarah Morris, Glenis Philip-Barbara

Hoani Lambert

Hoani Lambert: Mōrena koutou. It's my first day back at work. So ngā mihi nui o te tau hou. I thought we'd just start with karakia. Me inoi tatou.

Whakataka te hau ki te uru
Whakataka te hau ki te tonga
Kia mākinakina ki uta
Kia mātaratara ki tai
E hī ake ana te atākura
He tio, he huka, he hau hū
Tīhei mauri ora!

Ngā hau e whā o te motu, tēnā rā tātou.

Kia mihia rātou kua mene atu ki te pō, tiaho mai rā i te uma o Ranginui – haere, haere atu rā koutou! Kāti rā, ki a tātou ngā urupā o rātou mā, ngā waihotanga mai, kei te mihi.

Ko ngā whakaaro kei ngā whānau, kei ngā hoa kua pākia kaha nei ki ngā aupēhitanga o te mate korona. Kia tōaitia te kōrero, ‘kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui’ tātou.

Ki te mana whenua, Te Āti Awa, Taranaki whānui – nō koutou te whenua e tū ai te whare nei, i runga i te kaupapa o te rā, ka mahara ki te mamae, ka rongo tonu i te ngaoko o te whenua me te ngarue o te moana. Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou, kei aku rangatira.

Kei ngā manuhiri, nau mai, whakatau mai rā.

E hihiri ana te ngākau kua pōhiritia mai au i runga i te kaupapa o te rā, te Pūtake o te Riri, hei rā mahara ki ngā pakanga o Aotearoa. Ka rere ngā mihi maioha ki a koutou te hunga i petihanatia kia tū ai te rā nei hei whakamaharatanga mā tātou katoa, mei kore ake tēnei rā i a koutou.

Ā, kāti, ka nui aku mihi i konei. Nō reira tēnā koutou, huri noa te whare, tēnā tātou katoa

Welcome all to the National Library for this E oho! Waitangi event, our first for 2022. A special welcome to our special guest speaker Glenis Philip-Barbara. Glenis is the Assistant Māori Children's Commissioner and we're really privileged to have here to share her thoughts on this important kaupapa.

In the E oho! Waitangi series, so far, we have explored key events that shaped our nation and looked at Te Tiriti o Waitangi from a variety of angles. Today, we will focus on a topic that is dear to my heart, the link between the well-being of tamariki and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

I'm sure you will all agree that tamariki are the thread that will carry our past and current knowledge into the future. The well-being of tamariki is intrinsically linked with that of their wider whānau and community, who are their teachers and mentors. Understanding culture and identity is crucial for tamariki to thrive.

I know from personal experience that connecting to culture has strengthened me and I wouldn't be where I am now without understanding our rich history and those who came before me.

Within the National Library, as well as Archives and Ngā Taonga, we hold significant taonga and matauranga that can support tamariki Māori to strengthen their understanding of their tūpuna and connection to their culture and identity. We're working with Kura Kaupapa and partners across the sector to make sure tamariki and rangatahi can access their taonga in a fun and engaging way. This includes working with the Ministry of Education and Te Puni Kokiri to ensure schools and communities are supported to tell their local stories in support of the new mandatory Aotearoa histories curriculum coming into force this year.

Today, we are lucky to hear from Glenis Philip-Barbara who is the Assistant Māori Children's Commissioner at the Office of the Children's Commissioner. She is the first person to fill this role, which is critical to advocating for the rights and interests of tamariki and rangatahi Māori. Glenis has held senior roles and several organisations, including Tairāwhiti Polytech, Te Taura Whiti i te Reo Māori, Oranga Tamariki, and the Ministry of Social Development.

I've worked closely with Glenis in the past and can say she is authentically kaupapa-led. She walks the talk and is a leader in her community in Tairāwhiti who has positively impacted many, many people's lives. She's also hosted me in her house, fed me good fish and chips, which I'm not allowed anymore. I'm on Noom at the moment. But I want to thank her for her time today and thank all of you for joining us for this extremely important talk. I'm now passing to Tanja, Sarah, waiata first. And then I'll pass back to the team. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Welcome.

Waiata – Kōkiri Kōkiri Kōkiri (composed by Bella Tarawhiti)

Whakarongo ake au ki ngā reo o te motu
e karanga mai ana huakina huakina te whare ē
ka oti ka oti ngā mahi ē
haere mai e te iwi kia piri tāua
kia ki te atu ai ngā kupu whakairi ē
ēnei ngā wariu o ngā mahi tuhinga
hei mahi ketuketu
ngā whakaaro rerekē
ko hanga whakatū ngā aria ki te iwi
e kore e mimiti he puna wairua ē
he puna wairua ē

Welcome

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: Thank you very much, Hoani. And welcome again to the E oho! Waitangi series in 2022. My name is Dr. Tanja Schubert-McArthur. And I'm a learning facilitator here at the National Library. It's also my great pleasure to organise the E oho! Waitangi series. And thanks for everyone who has come today and a very warm welcome to you all, especially Glenis Philip-Barbara who I know as Karli’s mum.

So today's talk is the first E oho! Event happening in 2022 and we're delighted to continue the series with amazing speakers, thorough discussions, and a safe place for unsafe ideas. If you have missed one of the talks last year, you can now watch most of them online on our website. And we'd also love to hear your ideas for future events. So please email the National Library if you can think of any exciting speakers or topics that you would like to hear about in this series.
Just so you know what to expect today, Glenis Philip-Barbara will give her presentation shortly. And then about 1 o'clock we will close with karakia and allow people to leave the session if they have other appointments to be at. But we have made some time to allow for questions and discussions, a kōrero circle we call it, up to about 1:30pm.

And as I said, the session is video recorded and will be available in a few weeks' time. Keep an eye on the website and our social media for updates.
Due to COVID, we do not have a roaming mic. So if you have a question at the end, please say it loud and clearly. And Glenis, if you could repeat the question before you answer, that would be great. And now, I'm actually going to hand over to Sarah Morris whose idea it was to have this event.

Introduction

Sarah Morris: Kia ora Tanja. Kia ora koutou. I'm currently the manager of the Advice Team at the Office of the Children's Commissioner. And it was very kind of Tanja to suggest that I make a few words and, I guess, also a pitch and a thank you for this amazing series of talks, Tanja. I came along to one in 2020 that was celebrating He Whakaputanga and found it educational and quite wonderful and inspiring.

And at the end of that talk, Tanja said, if anyone has any ideas for future events come and talk to me afterwards. And so I did that. And this is where we are today. So thank you so much for the opportunity.

At the Children's Commission, we advocate for the rights, well-being, and interests of all children and have been on somewhat of a journey in our, I guess, understanding and application of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and what that means for tamariki here in Aotearoa. And I'm delighted to have had the privilege to work alongside Glenis who has brought so much wisdom and empathy and kindness and teaching to our staff at the Children's Commission.

So building on the work that I have done over the years on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, being very interested in what that means for tamariki here in Aotearoa and the application of rights frameworks, but taking Te Tiriti o Waitangi as our founding document of importance for tamariki here. So without going on any further building on the wonderful words that Hoani gave at the start, it's my pleasure to introduce Glenis Philip-Barbara.

Presentation starts

Glenis Philip-Barbara: Wow. Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou katoa. What a wonderful introduction. And thank you Jeremy for your kind, kind words. And to all of you in the audience,Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou. Thank you for coming out in these uncertain times as we begin to readjust again and organise ourselves for the arrival of Omicron in our communities.

Before I get into the formalities, I just really want to acknowledge our communities at this time and share our thoughts with those who are preparing and organising and getting themselves ready for what we are about to face as a nation.

Nā reira, ka nui te mihi ki a koutou. Ka tīmata aku whakaaro ki ngā Puna Mātauranga, ki ngā pou kōrero o tenei taki wā. Taranaki maunga, koutou ngā tamariki o Taranaki maunga, koutou ngā whānau, ngā hapū, ngā iwi e tū tonu nei. Neira te mihi o tenei wiwi ngāti ki a koutou, e mau tonu I te ahi kā o tenei taki wā. Tēnei rā koutou katoa.

It's an interesting time we're in, hey. And I think, there's no better time to talk about the future that we are wanting to create for our tamariki and our mokopuna. So who am I? I'm a wiwi ngāti from Tairāwhiti. My maunga is Operu. My awa is Reporua. My hapū is Ngā Te Rangi and is Ngāti Porou.

And although there are many of us, some 70,000 spread all over the place, in our little valley, we're a-- we're a kind of 1,000-odd. Odd in terms of we are spread and we are all very interesting types of people. So for those of you who have come across Ngāti Porou people before we have a bit of a reputation for being a bit straight up and for telling stories.

So today, I've got a bit of a proposition for you. So I want to share with you three big ideas about Te Tiriti and tamariki. And I want to weave in a few stories in and around the outside, because for me, stories are the mechanism through which meaning is derived. Yeah?

So I'll start by telling you a story about my little niece over the holidays. So, summertime is the most amazing time to be catching up with whānau, for most of us. And I'm absolutely blessed to have a large, well not by Māori standards, but large, considerably large whānau who gather every year over the summer and catch up with one another.

This year was a bit tricky because vaccine passports were required to actually attend the home and the gatherings at my parents' place, which was a little bit disconcerting for some. But we worked through all of the issues that we have and managed to get those vaccine passports presented to my parents.

Now, my parents are older and they have a number of health conditions. And so, as an act of manaakitanga toward them, as a whānau, we decided that this was an important thing to do.

Story: Her niece and COVID

Now, I tell you this because one afternoon over a barbecue, I got absolutely nailed by my little niece who hit me up over a bit of steak and salad. She said to me, “Auntie?”

I said, “Āe.”

She said, “Ko koe te tahi o ngā kaikōmohana o ngā tamariki, which means you're one of those Commissioners for children aren't you?”

I said, “Yes.”

And she said, “He pātai taku.” She said, “I have a question.”

I thought, “uh oh, it's never good, right, when one of our babies has a very serious question.”

So I listened with some trepidation.

And she said to me, “He aha te take kare te tai au te whiwhi tērā vaccine?” She said, “What is the reason why I can't be vaccinated?”

And at this time, you see my niece is not 12. So she wasn't eligible for a vaccine. And she asked me why.

And as she began to kind of layer out her questions, her analysis was this-- the vaccine had obviously been prepared by adults who don't have children. It had been imagined and developed by adults who don't have children. Why? Because, she said, if they did have children, they would have prioritised them in the creation of the vaccine and in the rollout, so to speak. Why?

She said, “Well, don't you big people always say that the children are the future? And if we are, who's thinking about us in this big pandemic? If you want a future shouldn't you have prioritised the children?”

And with that kind of conversation backwards and forwards, she left me with a job to do.

She said, “Auntie, I need you to make sure that in the future, if there's another pandemic, that whoever is responsible for creating the response is thinking about the future, thinking about us. We should not be left for last.”

Whoa. Heavy conversation for a barbecue, but there it is. Welcome to our family. And this young woman is a student at a Te Kura Kaupapa Māori. No problems with her thinking or analysis. Absolutely nailed.

Tamariki & mokopuna are powerful motivations

So I was really drawn to this kaupapa for one really simple reason: tamariki have and continue to be an absolute inspiration for many of the greatest feats in human history, right. The things, the lengths that we will go to make things happen for our tamariki are extraordinary.

When I think about the organisation that goes into the regional Kapa Haka comps, I mean, have any of you ever been to one of those? My goodness. The buses, the costumes, the fundraising, all of the effort to mobilise just to be present to see your babies on the stage in full flight doing their thing. It's a thing of wonder. And we do it for everything that they're involved in. And even as I say these words to you and think about how much we do, I understand that there's still more to come.

Story: Signing of Te Tiriti, Whakawhitirā, 1 June 1840

So I just want to take you back a little bit and imagine yourselves at Whakawhitira, which is a little crook in the corner of the Waiapu river in the Waiapu valley back in Tairāwhiti. It's the 1st of June 1840. So June on the coast, it's a little bit crispy. Hiku's normally got a bit of a snow top on. And it's a crisp, crisp morning.

It's on this kind of a day that my tīpuna, Koia-uru-te-rangi, and Rawiri Katia gathered with their whanaunga Awarau to meet William Williams who was coming about Te Tiriti. He brought Sheet 9, which is the East Coast sheet, along the Waiapu to gather signatures to have kōrero with rangatira and to gather signatures.

Now at that time, there was nothing in the Waiapu Valley that any of the rangatira could imagine that would be ever out of their reach or out of their say. You have to remember in 1840 there had been no land wars. In 1840, we had been engaging largely with missionaries in our rohe.

At that time, every rangatira in the Waiapu Valley felt like their Rangatiratanga was absolute. And so why, I ask, would we have entertained the idea of signing up to Te Tiriti o Waitangi? And it's certainly a question worth pondering for all of our rangatira who signed. Who do you think they were thinking about when they made the decision to sign?

Certainly, they weren't thinking about themselves. Let's make that clear. Te Tiriti o Waitangi sets out very clearly that what would be required of them was to share their power, their power and authority that had existed and been held within their whakapapa lines for over 500 years. It's a big proposition to offer the governance of pieces of our whenua to a foreign party, huge decision to take.

In our whānau, we're really, really clear that the only reason that our tupuna would have signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi back in 1840 was in the interests of us. I am the seventh generation from that time of signing. And my children the eighth, and so on and so forth. And so, it's in our interests that they signed.

So when you look at what was set out in Te Tiriti, it was an exchange. It was much like a reciprocal exchange that was proposed. There was a promise that their rangatiratanga would continue. Yep. There was the offer of protection from Queen Victoria, and her people, and her government. And then there was the opportunity to sell land to the Queen-sent land agents if people so saw fit to do so. Now, history tells us that what rolled out from that intent is quite different. But I really want you to remember that the inspiration for signing up to Te Tiriti is us, both parties hoping to find a pathway to peaceful coexistence between two very, very different people.

So when we say-- tamariki and mokopuna have the power to inspire, have the power to make us reach far further than we ever could, have the power to help us realise or aspire toward a very different future, this is not news. This is an idea that our tīpuna embedded when they signed to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This was the idea. Yeah. Does that make sense?

Mana mokopuna

And when I think about the types of decisions that we make in our daily lives, as parents, as grandparents-- I mean, one of my friends has just packed up her entire home and moved to Melbourne so she can live in the same neighbourhood as her mokopuna. In our whānau, we call that mana mokopuna in action, right. Once the mokopuna's born, everything changes.

And there are many of us in our different whānau groupings who can attest to this, whether we are Māori-- whether we are non-Māori, the power of children to drive us into a particular strategy or plan of action is really, really clear.

Promises of Te Tiriti

I want to spend a little bit of time to just talking through some of the specific promises that Te Tiriti set down. What you can see on the left in this image is obviously a copy of the facsimile of all of the signatures to Te Tiriti. And it's always been a source of pride for our whānau to be able to look thanks to the amazing work that happens here and up at Archives.

We can actually search up and find the signature of our tīpuna. We can actually look up and see what happened on the day that it was signed. We can look and find out the journeys of the East Coast sheet of this important document.

So with all of this in hand, what did it actually say? Hands up who in this room has a really clear idea about what Te Tiriti says. Yeah. Yeah. It's middling. Hey. Because I mean, if you're the same age or similar age to me, we don't actually get an opportunity to learn about this at school. And I'm glad to see that the curriculum is finally shifting to give our tamariki and mokopuna the opportunity to understand what Te Tiriti says and why it's important.

So there are three key ideas inside of Te Tiriti that, I think, many of us don't understand very well. But these are ideas that our tamariki and mokopuna, regardless of who they are or where they come from, really need to understand.
So the first idea, rangatiratanga-- rangatiratanga. My favourite definition of rangatiratanga is Moana Jackson's: the right to determine, define, and decide. Very simple, simple definition and very, very clear.

So the idea that once we began this process of coexistence, the British and their communities, ngā iwi, ngā hapū Māori and our communities, that once this process began, that we would each retain rangatiratanga. Now Te Tiriti talks about the rangatiratanga of Rangatira, yes, of ngā whānau, ngā hapū Māori. This is talked to specifically in the document.

And there is a promise made in Article II that this rangatiratanga would continue. What this means in practical terms is that as Māori people, we have a right, a continuing right, to determine for ourselves what good looks like, yep, what living looks like, which tikanga, which way of living, which way of operating. In fact, it guaranteed that the tikanga that had been established over hundreds of years would be protected and would be able to continue in the Aotearoa of the future.

Why Māori are upset

Now, we don't need to look too far to see that this hasn't happened. We've had something else happen instead. And I think it's important for our tamariki and our mokopuna to understand why many Māori people are upset about this and to get underneath it and to understand why they're upset.

Why are we upset? When your right to be who you are as compromised, as human beings around the world, we know exactly what this feels like. There are many, many communities who are talking loudly and clearly about their desire to be exactly who they are. And it's no different in Aotearoa. And for us, as a nation, the foundations of our nation promise Māori people that rangatiratanga would continue in the new Aotearoa, New Zealand. So that's one promise.

Articles of Te Tiriti

In Article III, Kuini Wikitoria says very, very clearly that she will tiaki the Māori people, she will tiaki the hapu of Aotearoa. Now, it's been translated to mean protect. But tiaki, as a kupu, as a word, I really want to encourage you to look into that word a little bit more.

Tiaki is a form of active protection. It's actually about caring for people. And when you care for people, you act in a particular way. You accept that their mana is theirs. You accept that they have a right to be who they are. And you provide for that to continue. Another sacred promise made in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

And when I talk with tamariki all over Aotearoa, as I've had the privilege of doing this past year, that completely echoes with everything that they tell us about what they want and what they need for the future. They want to be cared for. And they want us, their communities, to accept them for who they are. So it's really not rocket science.

Legacy of Te Tiriti

And I guess the third promise that's really sitting in the Preamble, which is in the beginnings, that kind of sets out the intent of Te Tiriti, is this idea that no harm would come as a result of signing this Te Tiriti o Waitangi, that no harm would come to Māori people. And you know some days, I sit back and I think-- well if my tīpuna Koia-uru-te-rangi and Rawiri Rangi Katia were looking at the data here today, if they were looking at the inequities suffered by their mokopuna, their tamariki, their inspiration for signing Te Tiriti, I wonder what action they would take.

And I think about what action they would expect us all to take. Because if we are as New Zealanders committed to building a just society, if we're committed to this idea of peaceful coexistence, we've got to do something about the foundations that have emerged out of conflict and colonisation. Because that's the legacy that we have inherited, not the intent of our respective tīpuna and elders and ancestors. Their vision for Aotearoa is quite different than the one that was created by successive settler governments.

I mean, my grandmother always had a view that greed took over. And that's how we ended up in this terrible mess. Well, the challenge for all of us today, as the tīpuna of tomorrow, what will we do about it, e hoa mā?] What can we do for our tamariki and mokopuna, so that the future that they inherit is one that clearly recognizes and affirms their whakapapa all the way back to Papatūānuku and Ranginui, and all of the elements in the natural world.

How do we begin to unpack the racist and colonial underpinnings of this nation that we have all inherited? It's not an easy task, but it is one that we are equal to, I'm sure. And the good news is there are many who made a start a long time ago.

Addressing racism

So if you just have a quick look-- I don't know if people have seen "Puao-te-ata-tu." It's over 30 years old now, a visionary document that actually took the tenets of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and looked to see how they could be applied to building a fair and just society in that time. So we're talking the late '80s. This was before the Neoliberal Project properly took hold and ran away on us in Aotearoa.

They looked very closely at what needed to be done. And they concluded this: That before we can address the problems we see, i.e. the disadvantage to Māori as the Treaty partner, before we can even attend to that, their advice was to address the presence of racism in our society. And when I say racism, I'm talking about ideological racism. The idea that everything that comes from England, everything that comes from Europe is inherently superior to every other peoples in the world. It's a really simple idea. Scary word-- simple idea.

And when you break it down to that simple idea, it's a bit ridiculous, ehy. It's a little bit ridiculous. All peoples around the world have inherent value. And they have something to contribute to the global community. And here in Aotearoa, we have a rich and vibrant culture that has persisted through many, many years, in fact for 182 years since Te Tiriti was signed.

This idea of superiority or better, better, best or this kind of dominating narrative has not served people or the planet particularly well. And our tamariki, when they talk to us about what's important to them, are really clear about this. They're not interested in this ongoing world domination narrative. They're not interested in this kind of ongoing consumption behaviour. They're worried aboutTe Taiao,. They're worried about Papatūānuku. And they're worried about our relationships as people, very, very clear.

And when you look at what Te Tiriti holds in terms of its promises, these are repeated through time, right. So 1840 doesn't just sit in a vacuum. It actually flows on into the Bill of Rights. It flows on into the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It flows on into the UN-- the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. All of these documents, all of these commitments that we've made at a governance level, globally and nationally, all flow back into Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Sharing power

So I ask you a question. What's stopping us? What is the awkwardness that prevents us from moving forward? And in my experience working in many organisations over a number of years, more than I care to count, is that for many of us the idea of sharing power is a foreign concept.

In Te Ao Māori, because relationships sit at the center of all of our tikanga and all of the way in which we organise ourselves, it's not such a difficult concept. But from what I know, looking at English and Western culture, the idea of power is managed in a very different way. And when I joined the Office of the Children's Commissioner, when Judge Becroft said to me: “Look I really want to learn about sharing power, it was an interesting experiment.” He'd never thought about it in the ways that I've thought about power and how it moves in a community. He'd never been exposed to the way that Māori people think about power and authority.

The idea of rights comes with responsibility, because rights and responsibilities expressed in a collective require that people are connected by whakapapa and kaupapa. Otherwise, it's just too easy to wander off on your individual bent with no regard for everyone around you. When you are locked in a mutually beneficial tikanga, everybody's needs are met. Right. So that's how Tikanga Māori works in practice if it's able to exist, if it's supported to thrive. So there are many valuable ideas in there that can benefit Aotearoa whanui.

Kaitiakitanga

Last year when I attended a hui with the then Governor-General Patsy Reddy, she talked about Aotearoa adopting kaitiakitanga as a value for the entire country. And it kind of stopped me in my tracks and got me thinking. How could we-- how would we adopt a value like kaitiakitanga on top of what is a colonial construct? Is it possible? Is it feasible? But it's certainly worthy of looking into a little bit further.

How could we become good kaitiaki for our tamariki, for our communities, for our environments? How might we begin to understand these values and concepts and apply them into our daily lives?

When we begin to ask ourselves questions like that, when our nation's leaders start to put these wero in front of us, it's a signal that things are moving, that we as a nation are growing and maturing, and that we are not just thinking about ourselves. That we're actually thinking about this generation of tamariki and mokopuna we are raising and what they will inherit in the future to come.
But one thing's sure, if we continue on the track that we have been on for the last few decades, their inheritance will be dirty rivers, tapped out planet, dysfunctional relationships. So we have an opportunity. And I believe the more that tamariki know and understand about Te Tiriti-- it's framework, its intended function, and its vision, the better off we will be, all of us, as a nation.

Te Tiriti as framework for renewed and reciprocal relationships

So looking forward, I think, as a nation, we need to decide on a couple of things. And I can kind of feel these ideas bubbling out there in the ether, particularly in social media. And it might just be my algorithms. But I get kind of jammed with these ideas, two big ideas. People want to see an end to racism, really, really clearly. Now again, might be my algorithms. But I'm seeing this expressed in a myriad of ways every day.

And the other process that people are really wanting to unpack is this process of colonisation, which is in itself fuelled by racism. This idea that there is one superior way to be, one superior way to think, one superior archive of knowledge, one superior process, one superior system, it's really old. And we're all a bit tired of it.

Again, these are two big ideas popping around in my inbox and in my newsfeed every day. And I tell you what. It just makes my heart glad to see them. Because I know if we are truly concerned about the disparities that exist in this country, that we read about everyday, that we are worried about, the seven-year gap and the life expectancy between Māori and Pakeha, the fact that many, many Māori children born today will never achieve the quality of life that our ancestors signed up for when they signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi. I think if we are really serious about addressing those things, we have to go back to Puao-te-ata-tu.

We have to unpack racism. And that starts with all of us as individuals and all of our systems that we have created that have developed this assumed superiority mindset around a Western knowledge. We as leaders and government and community in our homes, in our communities, have to adopt a curious mindset.

Hastings uplift; Māori becoming more self-determining

And what we learned at the OCC when we did our work looking into the Hastings Uplift, that report, Te Kupu O Te Manawa, drew one powerful conclusion. That if Te Tiriti determined that Māori have a right to Rangatiratanga over our kāinga, that is the right to determine what happens in our homes, the right and the responsibility if you've got a mighty lens on it. that that is the only way forward if we are going to see mokopuna Māori safe at home with their whānau.

So that's the big news flash. Māori people, tamariki Māori, mokopuna Māori are moving into a world where they will become more and more self-determining. So as a nation, how are we going to respond to that? Are we going to fight them? Or are we going to support them? I'm really hoping that we will support them. Because again, looking back at the wisdom of 1840 and the years before, what our tupuna knew is that for peaceful coexistence to even be a reality, any kind of reality, that the mana of people must be held. It must be understood. And it must be respected.

So in that model where we hold and respect the mana of people, no matter who they are and where they come from, if we're going to hold that firmly, we cannot make space for this superiority complex. We cannot assume that there is only one way, one right way, one normal way. That doesn't work. The minute you do that. You just diminish the mana of your Te Tiriti partner.

And you know, newsflash, you diminish the mana of anybody when we fail to ask and understand what drives them in terms of their values, what drives them in terms of their principles. If we are to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi, we've got to get back to first principles. We have to understand how it is that we can give life to those promises made so long ago.

And believe you me, every Māori person and every rangatahi and tamaiti Māori that I've spoken to in the last few years, and there've been a few, they're all expressing the same desire and a huge degree of frustration and hopefulness that it will be achieved.

So that's really the little wero I want to leave for you today. And I'm hoping that somewhere in there, we've got some discussion and conversation.

Ka Hau and other Youth projects

Because you'll see in the image behind me, I've got a picture of Ka Hou, a group of young people from Tairawhiti gathered together by Rob and Cilla Ruha in 2019. Why? Because they really needed something to do. They really needed a place to bring their talents to life.

I don't know how many of you are on TikTok, but these guys are a TikTok sensation. If you've seen their waiata] 35, oh my gosh. It's gone off worldwide. Worldwide. It's incredible. Millions and millions and millions of people singing about the Waiapu, singing about Apauapaia, Tokomaru Bay, singing about all of the things that Rob Ruha and Ka Hou wrote about in this waiata.

There's something about being authentically yourself as a young person that has this incredible magnetism. And these young people are an example of what happens when we grow tamariki and rangatahi Māori in their culture and we create an opportunity for them to give expression to that culture in an authentic and culturally relevant way.

These young people wrote their songs. These young people took the lead in terms of the creative. They were supported but not led by Rob and Cilla. And the results have been incredible.

Now if you, like me, get to hang around looking at what young people are doing on a day-to-day basis, you'll find that there's an incredible group just like these down in Otaki. What are they doing? They are making films. They are making films based on their own experience.

And if you look up to Tamaki Makaura and the COVID response up there, you will find young people who have been leading out COVID response on behalf of the community, the Get Dotted Campaign for example. Or the young people working down in South Auckland as part of Bubblegumstanding up incredible projects to care for their communities.

There are examples after examples after examples of rangatahi Māori taking the lead. And the common denominator in all of these spaces-- there are two. 1, they've grown up secure in their language, culture, and identity. 2, they've been supported by good adults to take the lead. And that's something that I'll be looking out for more and more in looking to bring those kōrero to the fore. Because I can tell you what, if s think about the data and all of the disparities, I know that that's not why our ancestors signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi back on the 1st of June.

But when I look at these groups and see what they're doing, they are exactly-- they are exactly the image of what our ancestors hoped to achieve by coming into partnership with the British Crown and creating an Aotearoa where a peaceful coexistence was possible.

So out of all of the chaos of colonisation and racism and all of the other social issues that we face are these little sparks of brilliance. And I really want to encourage you to be on the lookout for those little sparks and to do what you can to support those little sparks in your own communities, and your own organizations, and your own networks.

Places like these are brilliant for bringing young people together and supporting them to grow those little sparks in their own way on their own time. So I'll leave us there, e hoa mā. Thank you so much for listening so attentively. I love questions. Questions are my favourite so if you're brewing up any pātai, I'd be really, really pleased to hear them.

Nā reira ka nui te mihi aroha ki a koutou katoa. Neirā te mihi ki a koutou. Kia ora rā.

(Applause)

Tanja Schubert-McArthur (Closing Karakia)

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: Thank you so much Glenis for this inspirational talk and sharing your mātauranga, your wisdom, and knowledge with us. So before we go into questions, I'd like to bring up the karakia. And if we could all together karakia.

Unuhia, unuhia
Unuhia ki te uru tapu nui
Kia wātea, kia māmā, te ngākau, te tinana, te wairua i te ara takatā
Koia rā e Rongo, whakairia ake ki runga
Kia tina! TINA! Hui e! TĀIKI E!

And just remember to ask your questions loud and clearly and for Glenis to repeat them before she answers. Thank you.

Glenis Philip-Barbara:

Question 1: What happens if rangatahi can’t express rangatiratanga?

Kia ora. Did everyone hear that question, OK? Just checking. Yeah. Because it was very long one. So I don't think I could repeat it faithfully. But the essence of it is this-- that if we're in a situation where young people are being prevented from expressing their rangatiratanga or having it recognized to an extent that they're not given the opportunity to lead their own solutions, initiatives, have I come across this?

The answer is yes, often. It's the one thing that we struggle as adults to do, even as parents, is to trust our little chickies to fly off and do their thing. And sometimes, they fly and they get a little bit hurt. And sometimes, they fly and they rock it off and you don't see them for years. And sometimes, they fly and they just need a little bit of support right to get through some of the rough weather.

When I've come across the situation in professional settings, mostly, I've tried to get to the bottom of it with the people I'm around the table with. And I've found a very successful method to move them along is to agree to a bit of a test or a trial so that they get to learn how it is that young people might lead themselves and what that looks like.

So start small with a little group. Grow people's knowledge and insight and understanding. And then keep your foot on the gas to grow it over time. We humans are funny with change. We don't like it. And we resist it, even sometimes without realising that we're resisting it. And what we're proposing here is something quite different to the way that folks are used to operating, particularly in government settings. So a little test and trial has generally worked. And of course, this negotiating for a commitment to realise their rangatiratanga in line with Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the aspirations of the people when they signed.

So good luck. It's brilliant work that you're doing. Thank you so much to all of you there at the Royal Commission for the work that you're doing. It's absolutely critical that the learnings that you have to share become really well understood by all of us working in this space. Ka nui te mihi ki a koe. Any other pātai?

Question 2: What can be done about inequities for mokopuna Māori?

So the question is what can be done about inequities for mokopunas Māori? And what can be done to embed Mātauranga Māori in the way that we respond to these inequities?

There's a lot to do in this space. So Te Kupu O Te Manawa, our report was very, very clear. Actually, Māori leadership is crucial. Māoris leadership requires that we get used to, in government, sharing power with Māori. So that the leadership and the thinking can come from a different space, can come from a different worldview, can come from Mātauranga Māori.

Matauranga Māori and Māori people are inextricably linked. And so for that authentic connection, you really need to invest in Māori leadership. The thinking part is really the domain of all of us together. So with good Māori leadership comes the opportunity to have these kinds of conversations. If we try and have these conversations in isolation of Māori people, my colleagues who are Pākehā tell me that this is often a very unsatisfying experience.

And so there's work to do in terms of supporting Māori leadership into spaces of influence where decisions can be made. But until we get to a point where we can realise the vision of Te Tiriti at a structural level, so begin to unpack all of the assumptions throughout the structures of government that really only pay homage to Western thinking, we're going to have-- we're going to be having this conversation a lot.

But look. Remember I talked about the little bright sparks? They are-- the same exists for ‘by Māori for Māori initiatives’ around the country. So we do have these learnings to hand. We just need to gather them in and understand them a bit better. And the best people to do that for you are your Māori leaders within communities and government. How's that? OK, cool. Thanks, Kathleen.

Question 3: What is OCC doing to share power?

Yeah. I mean there's heaps on our website. So do have a bit of a search through. We've updated it lately so it's not quite as difficult to navigate as it was previously. We're inspired by everybody else's beautiful websites.

I think the most important thing we've done in the recent past is to explore this idea of power sharing and to work out how that might work at a governance level. And I see lots of other organisations doing similar things. So Te Papa's adopted a similar approach. I see even Soccer New Zealand, for example, is looking into this approach.

So there are many organisations now beginning to look and see what the shared leadership might look like. The real devil though is in the detail always. So the work that sits within that leadership ambit really needs to be sorted through. And we need to understand which work streams are best led from a Mātauranga Māori perspective, which will need both and why, and how we navigate that coming together of those knowledges. It really requires brave people who are willing to have many, many, many awkward conversations in the course of a day.

So I mean, if this is you and your colleagues or any of us in this room, kia kaha. It's always worth it. I've spent a year having multiple awkward conversations, sometimes with coffee, sometimes without. But always a valuable learning that comes out of the end. And holding onto that authenticity of self in the process is absolutely key.

None of us are in control of the knowledge that we got to have going through the school system. But as adults, we're absolutely in control of what we can learn and take action on now. So yeah, all power to you. Kia ora.

Question 4: What can Pākehā makes do to support?

Kia ora, David. Thank you for sharing your whakaaro I agree with you 100% around the scaffolding. David's asking for ideas around scaffolding or how he, as a Pākehā male can kind of lean into the work that needs to be done. Is that a fair kind of summation, David?

(Inaudible)

Yeah. So just thinking about role models and other Pākehā men doing this work, well worth giving Judge B. Becroft a call and having a talk to him. He's an interesting example as a 64-year-old Pākehā man, you know, principal-- former Principal Youth Court judge. A prime example of a Pākehā man who wouldn't necessarily entertain the idea of sharing power and yet did, and learned a lot from the process.

And he and I have been in conversation around how we might create a little bit more collateral together about that experience. Because you're right. People want to understand how to do it and what it feels like.

You will know as a therapist that sharing power is inherently difficult. Which is why the reason that sits behind-- I mean, why would we put ourselves through this kind of seemingly torture without a great reason for doing so? So in my world, kaupapa leads and value informs the way that we deliver on kaupapa.

And so really, to ask yourself what is my kaupapa? What is it that I'm trying to achieve? For what purpose will I take this step into further vulnerability and expose all of my assumptions as I take this journey?

I know also for some of my other Pākehā male colleagues and female colleagues that they've taken on executive coaching or something similar to help them work through those very private and tricky questions in their own minds. And for some of them, it's helped them to hold themselves to account for the behaviour that they seek to change. It's given them a safe place to come up with targets and ideas and then a safe place for accountability also. So private to parties, both parties, and an opportunity to grow and share.

Some people do that with their mates. That's cool. But in a professional setting, it's often comforting to have a mentor or an executive coach or someone who's providing you with professional supervision who can focus on specifically these areas of vulnerability and to just to keep us accountable to our journey and our growth.

I mean, we're not going to change the world in a heartbeat. But I do believe that as each one of us leans into this new learning, it's going to make a huge difference for the tamariki and mokopuna that we leave behind. Thank you, David, for sharing.

Question 5: Tips for working parents to stay connected with tamariki?

Yeah. I mean, it really comes down to, in my experience, making time. And sometimes that time is brief. But it's important to have it. For young people right now and particularly as I'm learning more and more for the young people who have only just come into the vaccine program, COVID has brought with them-- for them a whole lot of consternation and anxiety, particularly those ones who like to watch the news.

Like, I don't know if everyone's got kids like that. But the tamariki in our whānau really like watching the news and keeping up with stuff, which can be a bit of a blessing and a curse. But giving them a solid foundation around no wrong question, no missed opportunity to have time.

Because we have so many children, we used to do dates with our kids. Sometimes they were work dates and they get to come to work with us, one of us at a time. Or we'd make time for each one of them, as well as doing all of the whānau hui when there were serious things to talk about.

And making sure that as many of us as possible kind of roll out to support whoever's performing or playing sport or doing their black belt or whatever it is. Just being present has been a massive thing for our big noisy brood who have all flown the nest and are all doing their thing.

It just means that mobilising to tautoko for each other it's a little bit trickier and time consuming. It involves many cars and lots of coordination of accommodation. But we get there in the end. Yeah. Thank you for your question.

Questions 6: How can we make Waitangi Day more meaningful at schools?

Great question. So Matt's a primary school teacher, awesome. Homai te pakipaki ki a ia!

(Applause)

Massive mahi. Thank you, Matt. Matt's asking how we move away from Waitangi Day being a kind of token thing at school. I mean, I'd really-- I'd love to see you try and implement it in your classroom and work through what that might look like in terms of how you roll on a day-to day-basis. How could Te Tiriti inform the tikanga of your classroom and the way that you guys commit to tiaki each other?

I mean, it's such a core word, tiaki, in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It's in Article III and it's Queen Victoria's promise to the Māori people. If we were going to tiaki each other in a classroom sense, or if you, as a teacher, were committing to tiaki your tamariki, what would tiaki feel like to them? What would they be looking for from you? And equally, what would you be looking for between the tamariki? You know, just real practical application type things.

I know that at the Office of the Children's Commissioner, we've been on a journey for the last few years trying to apply Te Tiriti in terms of how we work and what we do and the way we do it. And it's quite a journey, hey. Like it's big work.

But it is possible. So I just really want to encourage you, Matt, to think about re-reading the articles, picking those terms, and thinking about how you might apply them into the tikanga of your classroom. And then challenge your syndicate to follow you. I reckon they'll be into it, because it's good stuff.

It's good for your classroom. It's good for you. It's good for your tamariki. And it just opens up that power sharing possibility. Imagine if kids could tell their teacher how they'd like to be treated. It's pretty cool.

Is that helpful? Sorry. I probably just given you a big job and two weeks to go. (laughter) But yeah. Just a whakaaro for you to take away maybe for next year. OK.

We squeezed all the questions out of the room. OK, good. Hey, look. Thank you so much for hanging back for a bit of a kōrero. You can always contact us at the OCC through the website. So do feel free. If anyone's interested in what we've been up to the work we've been doing, jump on the website. But feel free to reach out, because we're really open about sharing about our journey. And we'll just carry on.

Nō reira, ka mutu i reira.Kia ora tatou.

(Applause)

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