Leading from the front issuu

INTRODUCING TREATY TRAINING
“Treaty education is about helping people to address the why; why Te Tiriti o Waitangi is relevant
and important, personally and professionally. This starts with the who (relationships), and moves
through to making the Treaty real in our places of work and our in our lives,” Sharon says.
Sharon’s mahi is guided by the whakatauki: Ko te houhanga
rongo te kupu. The message is reconciliation. This
is facilitated through workshops, which offer safe environments
where participants can address Te Tiriti and
its implications through a gentle, participatory process.
In terms of Te Tiriti education, what did the landscape
look like in 2015?
The reception was open and keen although the level of
knowledge and understanding wasn’t high. There’s still
a long way to go but there has been a sea change in attitude
and an openness to people thinking; “We need to
get our heads around this. We need to understand this.”
That’s reflected too with Te Reo Māori, where we now
have waiting lists around the country of mainly middle
class Pakeha wanting to learn Māori and it’s the same
with Te Tiriti.
Increasingly people are wanting to learn more than
just the historical narrative, they want to understand
contemporary issues too. Such as, “How do we embody
this?” and “How do we put this into action?” and then
really drill down into what can we can do in an organisation
or as individuals to make significant change.
Te Tiriti training doesn’t feel mainstream yet. Do
you see this happening any time soon?
Not to diminish what’s happening in Te Reo but it’s
easier in some ways than teaching Te Tiriti. The crux in
fully honouring Te Tiriti is about power, about rebalancing
and redistribution and that’s a significant challenge,
but also a great opportunity. In terms of Te Reo you can
dip in and dip out whereas with Te Tiriti, what’s involved
first is understanding Aotearoa’s story and making our
history a core part of our curriculum throughout schools.
This will be significant in terms of working towards Te
Tiriti becoming mainstream.
Are you feeling positive about the direction Treaty
curriculum planning has taken?
Yes. There seems to have been broad acceptance so far
and the curriculum is now in the consultation phase and
will be confirmed in the middle of this year. My particular
interest is looking at what’s going to work for teachers
and what’s not, and how do we make sure this happens
and happens well.
Do you feel Te Tiriti training is getting to enough
influential decision makers consistently?
I think it is, increasingly so. For example the Ministry
of Education is making some real progress. They want
all their staff throughout the country to do a two day Te
Tiriti workshop and although I’m based in Otautahi, I
have spent the past six months at the Ministry for the
Environment in Wellington. A lot of Te Tiriti training goes
Above: It’s all about the origin story, the whakapapa.
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Healing our History through Te Tiriti