JOELLE​PETERS

Attributes Three and Four

 

Graduates must honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi by intergrating its priciples into their teaching practise and practise and continue to develop their own cultural competence.

 

In July 2014 I attended the two day Introduction Te Tiriti O Waitangi  course run by the Polytechnic for all staff members. I greatly enjoyed this course, in particular looking into the pre-history of the Tiriti O Waitangi and what happened in Aotearoa New Zealand from directly after the signing up until now. After taking this course I decided to work towards my Certificate in Mata a Ao Maori (level 4) over the next few years, as I think this will provide me with a range of skills, knowledge and experiences which will help inform my cultural competence. To this end I have recently taken and passed the paper Introduction to Te Reo and Tikaka Maori  in which I learnt some basic Te Reo and learnt about the ways Maori world views co-exist with and can be incorporated into every day culture in Dunedin and New Zealand.

 

I've been lucky enough to grow up in a generation where learning about Maori culture is actively encouraged in schools and so am already familiar with much of the basic Tikaka associated with Maori culture. A lot of my understanding has also been formed through my University experience. In 2011 I took the paper Bi-Cultural Theatre as part of my degree. In this paper we examined bi-cultural theatre theory and practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. One of our lecturers was a playwright from the Marae in Moeraki and the other has been involved in bi-cultural theatre locally and nationally for many years. This paper started me thinking about the way cultures often borrow from one another and as part of my honours studies I wrote a short dissertation called Breathing in the Bard on the way three Maori productions had hybridised, syncretised and localised Shakespearean texts. This involved a fair amount of study in Maori cultural performativity. Further to my experiences with Maori culture during my undergraduate studies I was also required to take a paper The Treaty of Waitangi during my postgraduate year at Teachers College.

 

I incorporate the values of the treaty into my classes by making sure we work in an environment of partnership, where all cultures are valued. I also use some basic tikaka in my class spaces such as not sitting on desks or eating in our work spaces. After learning some basic Te Reo I'm looking forward to beginning to integrate some of the Maori language into my interactions with the class, at my current level this will probably take the form of greetings and farewells and in pronouncing Maori names correctly. I also plan to work with my students on mihi mihi when we look at oral presentations. I have attempted this previously with my Bridging students but was disheartened by some of the students responses, in particular one student who became extremely agitated very quickly and proceeded to storm out of class. I feel better equipped to discuss mihi mihi with my students after my course, especially since my understanding of them has changed,  and am considering organsing a Maori guest speaker to cover the session. If I am unable to secure a guest speaker I would use a more appropriate template with my students as I've learnt that the common templates may not be suitable for people who don't have Maori heritage as it can lead to accidental appropriate of stories. 

 

Another area that has developed my cultural competency was working closely with a cohort of Saudi Arabian students in 2013. These students had just arrived from Saudia Arabia and were undertaking a certificate in international study to prepare themselves for entry into the NZDE course. While working with these students I was aware of the different cultural expectations coming from both sides and worked to make a suitable compromise. This was more challenging than I originally anticipated as the students had very different experiences and expectations of how courses should be run, particularly around the need to do work outside the classroom. At first I found working with the students reasonably difficult, but once we spoke together and clearly outlined our different expectations and came to an understanding working with them became much easier. It is also important to note that throughout this process I was very aware of my positionality as there were personal challenges (both perceived and actual) for me working as a young female lecturer with a group of older male international students.