Matariki: Te whetu o te tau,.A time for reflection, gratitude and aspirations.

I woke up this morning. The dawn of a new year on the Māori calender and moved from the comfort of my bed into the fresh air of a cloudless winters dawn. Both my wife and I have been waiting for this moment. This is a chance to connect with our tipuna, our ancestors. To connect with loved one that we have lost. To connect with our dreams for our whanau. It is a time for reflection, gratefulness and aspirations. It is a time for aroha (Love), whanaungatanga (Family connections) and kotahitanga (unity).  

I acknowledge those who have past this past year. In particular a student of mine that went far too soon... Arohanui dear N xx and a leader whose legacy will live on in the rangatahi that I am fortunate enough to walk with now and in the future. Papa Hec you are a man I wish I knew better, a man that truly made the world a better place. You are both inspirations to me to become better and more courageous than I have been... 
This karakia is from my sister. It was one I felt was fitting for our Matariki dawn. It struck me because of how right it felt to include the whanau that were taken in the act of terror on March the 15th this year. This was important to do. Thank you, Tina. Your aroha is matched only by your wairua. x

E rere ngā roimata mamae aroha,
Te tangi a te ngākau kua haehaetia e te aroha mōu,
Taku tūngāne, taku tuakana, taku taina.
Koutou e tū mai nei i te papa mākū i te marangai,
Koutou kua koroewetia i te pō
Te Pō uriuri, Te Pō tango-tango
E rere ngā roimata, e rere, e rere.

E rere, e te whānau kua riro atu ki te pō.
Tāne ma,
Wāhine ma,
Tamariki,
Koroua,
Kuia.
Haere hoki atu ra ki o tini whanaunga ki tua o te arai, e tatari ana mō koutou.
Ngā ringa kua tūwhera atu, ngā karanga pōhiri, ngā whatu piataata i te aroha.
E rere ki te taha o tō koutou Kaihanga, a Allah, okioki ai i tōna aroha, i tōna korōria.
As-salāmu ʿalaykum

Our tears flow,
Our hearts hewn by our anguish for you,
My brother, my sister,
Standing on soil sodden with tears
Folded over in grief, in this darkness
In the darkness that swirls
In the darkness that takes
Let the tears flow.

Return as a family, the spirits that have been received into the night,
Men
Women
Children
Elders
Return to your loved multitudes who wait beyond the veil for you
Arms outstretched,
voices calling you,
eyes ashine in love for you,
Return to the side of your creator Allah, to rest in his love and glory
Peace be upon you.

There is so much I am grateful for. My whanau and their wellbeing,  the love from my wife and children. Over this last year, I have been fortunate to meet many new people and this has been linked to my love for waka hourua. I have begun to explore nga whetu and the knowledge that our tipuna drew from them. The language that has been within me for as long as I have existed is beginning to emerge more and in this happening my eyes are being opened. Something is stirring and I don't know where it will take me but I am willing look to the heavens, to set the sails and navigate my way.

I don't know what this coming year will reveal. I have many dreams and many aspirations to work towards both personally and professionally. 

• One is to use Maramataka in my life to align my actions with our tipuna and nga atua. 
• Another is to strengthen my use of te reo. Make it more prevalent in my daily life. 
• The third is to be actively involved with social justice. 

These goals are my focus. At home, at school, in the forest, on the waka, in front of students or in front of staff. The racism and bias (including unconscious bias) that happens in our current society needs to become something of the past. White privilege definitely has no place in our education system. I am a māori that has been successful in a white privileged society... I've managed this and I am proud of being able to provide for my whanau the way I have. But I am not complete. My ability to assimilate to a western monocultural society came at a significant cost. This, in all honesty, makes me cry. Not knowing my identity for so long has caused much confusion and hurt. I am committed to healing that hurt. 

When I learn with our rangatahi I want them to know that they are holders of great knowledge and skills, they are powerful people that are capable of fighting against unjust people and systems. We are capable of making this community and world something worth passing on to our future generations. 

I don't know if anyone will read this.. It's more for myself than anyone else. But it is important to share these insights at times and that what Matariki is about. Nga mihi whanau. 

Our Whakapapa, Our Knowledge, Our Way... Mauri Ora!

Tribute to Haeata and any other school committing to and learning from a personalised learning curriculum.

This past weekend I witnessed fear. This fear was in the form of professional educators using a poorly written article to challenge the need for our education system to provide anything more than doing the basics well. If you really want to read the article I'm sure you can find it on the net somewhere. What's not so easy to find is a blog in response by Robin Sutton, Tumuaki at Hornby High School... so here it is... 

I am currently on a study break from teaching science and maths in a secondary school in Turanganui a kiwa (Gisborne.) My studies are focusing on contemporary education at a masters level. My teaching experience has included 3 years in a small area school in our region that was committed to rethinking & redesigning education in a way that better serves our rangatahi. It was during this stage in my professional life that I began learning how to design and implement personalised learning programs.

That in itself exposes me as a believer that our current system needs to change. But if you aren't so easily convinced by that single statement, (hopefully you need more evidence...this is what critical thinking is after all...) here are some stats.

source: educationcounts.govt.nz

To read comments about focusing on subject specialist knowledge and "doing the basics better" or "tinkering with the system" is concerning. This is not recognising the significance of this issue. To seriously think that a curriculum that is solely knowledge-based will address this critical issue is ignorant. It is from a position of privilege to assume that this tinkering would be enough. 

It's from a privileged perspective because it implies that incremental improvement is enough. It's from a privileged perspective because this disparity is not really warranting substantial changes. Let's not avoid the social statistics associated with education not meeting the needs of minority groups.

As Robin Sutton said; 
"Only those who have historically been successful could object to this. They have a vested interest to protect because their power rests in educational inequity. "

How is "doing the basics but better" any different from the past? We've always tried to do better, but it's rarely shown any improvement for Māori in relation to Māori students attaining equity in terms of outcomes compared to Pākehā students. Why do you think this is? 

Would it be shocking to know that Māori are descendants of masters in many areas of knowledge? Masters of environmental science and maths. Masters of philosophy and art. Masters in meteorology and astronomy? Master Voyager and Navigator Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr spoke about this truth in this interview. 

"The education system in Aotearoa has never been a system that emphasises how good our traditional knowledge has been. And so, it’s been left in this realm of myth and legend. But to be able to get on a waka and do all this stuff — and to see that there’s a traditional science. Well, they understand. I’d be doing things like: “Let’s figure out how fast we’re going. Without using any instruments.” Then, I’d show them how to do that. Really, it’s all physics and maths. And they’d say: “But our tūpuna didn’t do any of that stuff.” And I’d say: “Yeah, they did. They just didn’t call it physics and maths. They called it living.”

Our rangatahi have a mastery embedded in our culture, our identity and in their whakapapa, yet the model we use is unable (or unwilling,) to allow it to be realised in its full capacity. Having a small percentage who are capable of learning in a western model is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

We need to find a model that works for all students. This is the challenge and it's not going to happen with schools tinkering around the edges. But by courageous schools and communities experimenting with research-based strategies. Personalised learning programs that operate like they do in Haeata are designed to meet the individual needs of their learners. This may not always work... that's education. It's not a one size fits all system in spite of conventional practices. The industrial model is not fit for purpose.

Personalised learning a step in the right direction. Although it is not specifically from te ao māori. At least it enables the learner to draw from mātauranga māori if they choose. This is the point of personalised learning. The potential of this is determined by the learner, not by the teacher or by the school. It takes amazing leaders and amazing learners and amazing support for this to occur.

For change to happen we need heroes to act.
For change to happen we need visionaries to share.
For change to happen we need critical thinkers to evaluate.
For change to happen we need courage to continue.
For change to happen we need collaboration to create and refine.
For change to happen we need time to master.
For change to happen we need reflection to learn.

This is in my opinion Haeata. #KiaKahaHaeata