Ko te manu ka kai i te miro nōna te ngahere
Ko te manu ka kai i te mātauranga nōna te ao
The bird that eats from the miro tree owns the forest
The bird that eats from the tree of knowledge owns the world

This whakataukī instructs us to not only eat the berries of the forest, but to eat the berries of knowledge. In an education context, it recognises that learning cannot be confined within the walls of the classroom, but that students must be afforded the opportunity to explore what is beyond. The world is the classroom, and the classroom is the world. Education outside the classroom and place-based education are both practises and approaches to learning that encourages kaiako and ākonga to begin “where our feet are” (Penetito, n.d.), and then to extend the classroom walls to include other places within the community and further afield.

What is the significant moment of learning?

The ākonga Māori in my te reo Māori classes have lost their connection to their ancestral lands, to their papa kāinga, therefore there is little sense of place, sense of belonging, and sense of identity. If accessibility or connection to their tūrangawaewae is non-existent, how can I foster that reconnection? What is an alternative base camp I can create for my ākonga?

How did I come to this moment of learning?

The Tāmaki College student cohort is made up of 29% Māori students, the majority of whom identify as Ngāpuhi or from northland. If you ask a student who has Ngāpuhi tribal affiliations where they are from, they would normally respond with “somewhere up north.” When you ask almost any ākonga Māori where they are from, you would be met with a nonchalant shrug, or “G.I.” When we were in Hokianga visiting the cultural centre, one of the ākonga had replied to the question “where are you from?” with that very answer, “GI.” The questioner, who was our mana whenua host, responded back with “no body [Māori] is from GI.” I had taken offence as I felt, at the time, that it came from a place of cultural privilege and ignorance to the plight of our rangatahi who are three to four times removed from their papa kāinga. This response only served to further displace my ākonga. On the other hand, I knew she was right. Our ākonga are not ancestrally from ‘GI.’

Who is speaking in to this learning?

There is an inseparable link between identity and place. From a Māori perspective, connection to land has deep cultural significance. The word whenua translates as ‘land’ and ‘placenta’ or ‘afterbirth.’ When we (Māori) are born, our whenua or placenta is planted in our ancestral whenua (land). Burying the whenua (placenta) and pito (umbilical cord) provides a place of standing, or tūrangawaewae, for the newborn child and reinforces their relationship to that whenua (land) and to their forebears whose whenua (placenta) was buried there before them (Royal, 2007). Underpinning this customary practise is whakapapa, for we believe we are descendants of Papatūānuku, the mother of our eponymous ancestor Tāne-nui-a-rangi.

What if the umbilical connection between descendant and land has been severed? What if ākonga don’t know their whakapapa, their whenua, their whānau beyond a couple of people or even don’t know their grandparents or their great grandparents? How do I provide the proxy of tūrangawaewae, that sense of place, sense of belonging, sense of identity?

A lot of our rangatahi do not have that tūrangawaewae. In his keynote speech at the Ako Panuku Hui ā-tau, Wixon (personal communication, October 5, 2021) says that in order to help our displaced rangatahi pursue their dreams, “we need to do it in the comfort of a base camp.” It is through powerful self-prophesizing kōrero we have with ākonga, with their whānau, and through arranging haerenga to their whenua that we start to begin to build a place for our ākonga to stand. If we can build that base camp, our ākonga are free to go out to explore and eat from the tree of knowledge, and then return to share that newfound knowledge back to their ngahere, their tūrangawaewae.

The turangawaewae need not be a physical place. According to Wixon (ibid):

“The tūrangawaewae can be that confidence in self, it can be an inner-space where our kids can draw their power, their sense of self, sense of confidence, sense of belief and belonging. As long as there is somebody who has their back, who tells them they are great and that they are destined for great things. It is how we are interacting with our kids and what we are telling them.”

This is the base camp that Wixon speaks of, it is a positioning system that places the person within a culturally, spiritually, environmentally, economically, and socially secure locality. Deeply embedded in us are our cultural and place-based sensibilities.

More important, however, is how we help position and ground our ākonga in their base camp, between Ranginui and Papatūānuku, and within the wider taiao (environment). It is done with karakia. In practise, this is the karakia we do at the beginning and end of our wānanga, lessons, events. It is through tikanga that we protect and surround this ‘base camp.’ Tikanga, culture, language, identity, place, they are all interconnected and interdependent. We cannot include one without including the others.

Why does this matter as a teacher of social justice?

Despite the well-meaning intentions of the Ministry of Education, “whitestream” education (Milne et al, 2012) as it stands today will not and cannot hope to know what it truly means to enjoy and achieve educational success as Māori. Mason Durie clearly states that to learn as Māori means “to have access to te ao Māori, access to language, culture, marae, tikanga and resources” (2003, p.199). Accessibility to these taonga in schools like Tāmaki College are difficult, but not impossible. These taonga are only accessible through kaiako Māori who are equipped with the cultural, linguistic, customary expertise. If I am to turn out Māori learners who are secure in their own identity in a school system that is not structurally designed as such, then I must create opportunities for them to have access to te ao Māori and ancestral lands outside of the school grounds.

How will this look in my practice moving forward?

Go to Ngā Tai o Tokerau page (password protected) to see the details of our trip.

I took my Senior Te Reo Māori tauira on a two-day trip to Te Tai Tokerau (a common Māori term used for the North) as one of my many attempts to address my tauira’s yearning to feel connected to their history, whenua, culture, language, and identity. Most of these tauira have never set foot outside of Tāmaki Makaurau, to northern soil; in fact, some have never been to their ancestral whenua. As Māori and Pasifika people, we are deeply connected to place. It is seen in the rhythm of our dances, heard in the sounds of our drums, the lyrics of our songs, the names of our children and landmarks, the poems and metaphors of our formal speeches, and the beats of our hearts. To help reconnect my tauira to their identity, I felt it necessary to create opportunities to make authentic links to authentic places.

By taking my tauira on this trip, I hoped to harness the benefits of experiential learning afforded by place-based education and learning experiences outside the classroom (EOTC). The intention was to strengthen the diverse tauira identity, agency, connection to place, histories, local Māori knowledge, tikanga, and te reo Māori in my senior classes by providing authentic links to national contexts of historical importance. For example, to listen to the treaty stories at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, have a multi-sensory experience of the story of Kupe at Manea in Hokianga, and pay respects to the uruwhenua Tāne Mahuta in the Waipoua forest, are all authentic experiential links to authentic people and places.

This trip also served an academic purpose whereby each tauira was required, in the following term, to submit a recount documenting their trip and experiences as part of their waihanga tuhinga internal assessment (91085).

The seed to plan this trip was sown by a two-day workshop with Rachel Tūwhāngai during the Term 1 school holidays. It was at this workshop where I was first introduced to John Dewey’s philosophy of education.

Dewey championed progressive educational reform. He believed that students ought not to be passive recipients of knowledge but active learners. This belief is situated in his key philosophy of experiential learning or learning by doing. In his 1916 article, Dewey stated that it is more important to “Give pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning results naturally” (p. 191). He was a pragmatist, among other things, but he was a breath of fresh air for me. I was left pondering the question: have schools changed in the last hundred years?

I believe that some of the best learning comes from experience. I have been on many experiences outside the classroom as a kura kaupapa and wharekura student that have had long lasting impacts on my life and personhood. Where learners learn by doing, discussing, and interacting with one another, the learning is much more meaningful. It is even more meaningful, when those experiences are based upon one’s own whenua. Therefore, it is important to create environments and opportunities where learners can pull meaning from a wide variety of experiences, within and outside the confines of the classroom walls.

References

Dewey, J. (1916). Thinking In Education. Democracy and Education: An Introduction To The Philosophy of Education. New York: The Free Press.

Durie, M. (2003). Nga Kahui Pou: Launching Māori Futures. Wellington: Huia Publishers.

Milne, A., Kingi, K., Martin, D., Ungounga, U., Milne, K. (2012). Colouring in the White Spaces: Row, row, row, your boat…Auckland University School of Education.

Penetito, W. (n.d.) Place-based education and Māori history . Te Kete Ipurangi https://maorihistory.tki.org.nz/en/videos/place-based-education-and-maori-history/

Royal , T. C. (2007, September 24). Papatūānuku – the land – Whenua – the placenta. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/papatuanuku-the-land/page-4 (accessed 10 October 2022)

Sprouts Schools [Sprouts]. (2021, January 30). John Dewey’s 4 Principles of Education [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3fm6wNzK70

Wixon, K. (2021, October 5). Transforming the futures of rangatahi by transforming education. [Keynote address]. Ako Panuku Hui ā-Tau, New Zealand. https://akopanuku.tki.org.nz/information/hui-a-tau-2021-ondemand/

Ngā Paerewa

STANDARD	ELABORATION OF THE STANDARD
Standard 1: Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnerships Demonstrate commitment to tangata whenuatanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership in Aotearoa New Zealand.	• Understand and recognise the unique status of tangata whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand. • Understand and acknowledge the histories, heritages, languages and cultures of partners to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. • Practise and develop the use of te reo and tikanga Māori.
Standard 4: Learning-focused culture Develop a culture that is focused on learning, and is characterised by respect, inclusion, empathy, collaboration and safety.	• Manage the learning setting to ensure access to learning for all and to maximise learners’ physical, social, cultural and emotional safety. • Create an environment where learners can be confident in their identities, languages, cultures and abilities. • Develop an environment where the diversity and uniqueness of all learners are accepted and valued.
Standard 5: Design for learning  Design learning based on curriculum and pedagogical knowledge, assessment information and an understanding of each learner’s strengths, interests, needs, identities, languages and cultures.	• Gather, analyse and use appropriate assessment information, identifying progress and needs of learners to design clear next steps in learning and to identify additional supports or adaptations that may be required.  • Design and plan culturally responsive, evidence-based approaches that reflect the local community and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership in New Zealand.  • Harness the rich capital that learners bring by providing culturally responsive and engaging contexts for learners.  • Design learning that is informed by national policies and priorities.

Tātaiako

COMPETENCY	CERTIFICATED
Manaakitanga: Values – integrity, trust, sincerity, equity.  Demonstrates integrity, sincerity and respect towards Māori beliefs, language and culture.	• Values cultural difference. • Demonstrates an understanding of core Māori values such as: manaakitanga, mana whenua, rangatiratanga. • Shows respect for Māori cultural perspectives and sees the value of Māori culture for New Zealand society. • Is prepared to be challenged, and contribute to discussions about beliefs, attitudes and values. • Has knowledge of the Treaty of Waitangi and its implications for New Zealand society
Tangata Whenuatanga: Place-based, socio-cultural awareness and knowledge. Arms Māori learners as Māori – provides contexts for learning where the identity, language and culture (cultural locatedness) of Māori learners and their whānau is armed.	• Knows about where they are from and how that informs and impacts on their own culture, values and beliefs.
Ako: Practice in the classroom and beyond. Takes responsibility for their own learning and that of Māori learners.	• Is willing to learn about the importance of identity, language and culture (cultural locatedness) for themselves and others. • Can explain their understanding of lifelong learning and what it means for them.

Tapasā

TURU	ELABORATION OF THE STANDARD
Turu 1: Identities, languages and cultures Demonstrate awareness of the diverse and ethnic-specific identities, languages and cultures of Pacific learners.	1.1 Understands his or her own identity and culture, and how this influences the way they think and behave. 1.2 Understands the importance of retention and transmission of Pacific identities, languages and cultural values. 1.4 Understands that Pacific world-views and ways of thinking are underpinned by their identities, languages and culture.
Turu 3: Effective Pacific pedagogies Implements pedagogical approaches that are effective for Pacific learners.	3.1 Recognises that all learners including Pacific are motivated to engage, learn and achieve. 3.2 Knows the importance of Pacific cultural values and approaches in teaching and learning. 3.3 Understands that Pacific learners learn differently from each other, and from their non-Pacific peers.