Visioning, Coordinating, and Implementing- Experiences Co-ordinating Virtual Language Revitalization

Taanshi,

The MDP program has provided me exponential growth both personally and professionally. It was so exciting to use my newly developed skills learned during the didactic portion of MDP and be able to implement it while working with my own Nation and community on such a critical initiative like language revitalization.

Working with the Louis Riel Institute (LRI) for my second placement was a very cyclical progression as the summer before I started the MDP program I worked as a Research Assistant with LRI. It was wonderful being able to both open and close my MDP experience working with the LRI an organization that I hold close to my heart.

At first, fulfilling the responsibilities of the project coordinator was daunting on such a critical initiative and I was unsure of my skill set, but once I was immersed in the work, I realized just how complementary my course work and teachings from MDP were in my placement.

For me one of the pieces that have been the challenging has been trying to coordinate during the COVID-19 pandemic but also been the rewarding, to ensure that the community workshops were accommodating to our language champions. I really value the virtual space the working circle was able to create for the community members during our workshops as it facilitated a space for the attendees to learn from, gather to listen and share their experiences pertaining to language.

Furthermore, this placement has provided me the opportunity to strengthen my relationships within community and learn more about the process of language revitalization and power of meaningful collaboration.

I want to also express extreme gratitude to the LRI for trusting and empowering me to take on this important work. As they provided a nurturing environment to learn, listen, and grow and provided me a beautiful segway into life post-MDP. 

Kawapamitiinawaw, 

Ali

Music to my ears

By Chelsie Parayko, 2nd year MDP student

My community has completely lost our language. Colonization has stripped that ability away from my people. In 2018 my people came together and celebrated finally receiving reserve designation on the lands we had been gathering on for time immemorial. We invited our sister nations and leaders from across Turtle Island, including Grand Chief Jonathan Solomon.  Jonathan took the time to congratulate us and said,

 “I am not usually an emotional man but being here on the land with you is making me cry. I had a dream last night that your language returned to these lands. That your people once again spoke those words.”

His words rang in my ear and in my heart.

In Aotearoa, Waipareira welcomed me into their whānau with a whakatau, a traditional ceremony to welcome new people into their family in a good way. The first thing I noticed was how vibrant their language and songs were. The staff spoke mostly in te reo Māori and everyone sang their beautiful songs with ease. It was the most beautiful thing.

Nearing the end of my time in Aotearoa this trip I was talking to a friend about my community and our loss of language. She told me that her peoples retained a lot of their language through song and perhaps that is how we will learn again. So there lies my newest great adventure, to learn our songs so that my territory can hear those words be spoken again.

Chelsie at Monkey Creek

My Field Placement with Te Whānau o Waipareira - Part 2

By Sarah Wood, 2nd year MDP student

Rainbow in Waitangi

Waipareira is a fast-paced, high energy organization, so it’s not surprising to me how quickly the second half of my time with Waipareira went by. It was an absolute pleasure to spend these last three months here.

In addition to continuing my work on the literature review and other research activities, in the second half of my placement, Paige and I had the opportunity, thanks to some of our generous hosts at Waipareira, to travel throughout northern New Zealand. Being based in Auckland for most of the placement, it was wonderful to see some rural areas including Hokianga, Waitangi (where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed), Opononi, and the Waipoua Forest (home of Tane Mahuta pictured below). We had the privilege of hearing about each of these culturally significant and sacred areas from amazing people who call this area home.  

Tane Mahuta and me (if you look really closely) for scale

There was no shortage of opportunities to expand by knowledge of the innovative ways Maori have and continue to challenge the impact of colonialism. A key component of Waipareira is the use of te reo Maori (Maori language) and it was amazing to witness speakers of all levels utilizing the language on a daily basis. If you read about Indigenous language revitalization, you will most likely come across information about Maori language nests (immersion for young children). This in mind, it was humbling to work alongside both parents who were instrumental in establishing the first of these nests for their children as well as fluent speakers who were the first generation to attend. It was amazing to witness the pride taken in using and preserving te reo Maori for future generations and this experience has inspired me to continue working on Anishinaabemowin.

I am so grateful for this amazing learning experience and for our Waipareira whanau, and I hope to return to Aotearoa soon! 

Auckland from the top of the Sky Tower on my last day

Rautaki Māori

By Paige Sillaby, 2nd year MDP student 
 

Paige in front of the Te Whānau o Waipareira office

It’s been a month since I completed my international field placement at Te Whānau o Waipareira, and I am missing my Waipareira whānau, as well as the breath-taking mountains of Aotearoa New Zealand. Words cannot describe how deeply this summer’s field placement has impacted my personal and professional development. 

During the first month of field placement, I spent a lot of my time reading through documents to help me understand Waipareiratanga, which loosely translates as the unique way in that Waipareira operates as Māori organization. Some of the documents that I reviewed were; Te Whānau o Waipareira Strategic Plan, and the Waitangi Tribunal.  I would say that much of the information I learned this summer came from speaking with members of the Strategic Innovation team, as well as Wai- Research team about Maori culture, and the history of Aotearoa.

Mount Eden

My primary research project at Waipareira was to work alongside key staff to research and document the Rautaki Māori – Work-Placed Language Revitalization Strategy pilot. The culmination of this research is a summary report with a toolkit that can be used to implement language revitalization strategies in other Indigenous organizations. The overall purpose of the Rautaki report was to gather feedback from key participants in the Rautaki Māori model and designed to meet the following three objectives.

•          To determine and understand the impacts of Rautaki Māori on Wai-Atamai and Wai-Intel,

•          To identify strengths, challenges, and opportunities of the Rautaki language strategy

•          To document Waipareira Rautaki Māori model as a strategy for workplace language revitalization.

At the end of my placement, Waipareira generously printed out the Rautaki Māori report, which was put together by the Graphic Design team. I was not expecting Waipareira to do this, and I am so appreciative that they provided me with copies to take home and share with Indigenous organizations elsewhere.

Through my time in Aotearoa and especially working on Waipareira language revitalization strategy, I have truly been inspired to learn my Indigenous language. During my three months at Waipareira, I learned a little bit of Te Reo through the Rautaki Māori initiative. One of the Rautaki activities was to build a pepeha. The pepeha is a way of positioning yourself within a Māori worldview.  I am proud to share my pepeha;

Ko Horseshoe te maunga

Ko Simcoe te roto nui ake

Ko te Alantic te moana

Ko Big Canoe te rangatira

Ko Georgina Community Centre te wharenui

Ko Chippewa ki Georgina Island te hapū

Ko Ojibway te iwi

Ko Paige ahau

I would like to say chi-miigwetch/ thank you to Waipareira for hosting my field placement. Also, I recommend checking out #WaiRauMaori on twitter to see some of the awesome Rautaki Māori activities from with summer!

Ngāpuhi

Kia Ora from Aotearoa - Auckland, New Zealand

By Paige Sillaby, 2nd year MDP student

 

Sarah Wood (L) and Paige Sillaby (R) - "Go Blues Go!"

My field placement is with Te Whānau O Waipareira, a Māori health organization located in the largest urban Māori populated city in Aotearoa New Zealand. They offer over 60 different services catering to justice, social, education and health to the Whānau (family) of West Auckland. All services at Waipareira operate within a Whānau Ora framework, a holistic approach to service delivery in which Māori health and wellbeing is centered around the Whānau and not the individual and also premised on the belief that Whānau are their own change agents. Whānau comes first at Waipareira! At Waipareira, all services and programs are strategically designed to support and awhi (help) the entire Whānau including; pepi (babies), tamariki (children), rangatahi (young people), matua (adults), and kaumatua (elderly).

I am working with an amazing team from the Wai-Atamai sector of Waipareira, which consists of three (3) main work streams: 

• Wai- Research - community Indigenous research unit;
• Change and Transformation – developing and embedding change and transformation skills and adaptive leadership across the organization; and
• Strategy, Innovation, Design and Digital Content – bringing the strategic plan to life, piloting and developing innovative approaches within an urban Indigenous context and utilizing design and digital content to illustrate and showcase.

More specifically I am located within the Strategy and Innovation stream which consists of six staff working on the long terms outcomes of Waipareira programming and ensuring strategic milestones are progressing. My main project at Waipareira has been working on a program evaluation for their Rautaki Māori Rauemi. Rautaki is a Te Reo Māori word meaning ‘strategy’, and Rauemi meaning ‘resource’. The Rautaki is essentially an incubated language program within the Wai-Atamai team, which encourages Waipareira staff to practice Te Reo Māori (Māori language) and Tikanga (cultural practices) within the work place. With this evaluation I hope to highlight some next steps on how to spread their Rautaki Māori across the Waipareira organization.

Hoki and Chips in Mission Bay

Through my time here I have gained an understanding of the parallels between Māori and First Nations language health. I believe that Māori of New Zealand are leading the way in terms of Indigenous language revitalization in education: Kohanga Reo (preschool), Kura Kaupapa (primary), Wharekura (secondary), Te Tohu Paetahi, and Te Ataarangi (total immersion); and in work practices, Rautaki Māori. When I return to Canada, I hope to incorporate similar practices into my personal and professional life. I am inspired to learn my language (Ojibway), and use Ojibway words in everyday communication.

In my spare time, I enjoy exploring Aotearoa with fellow MDP student Sarah Wood, who is also conducting her field placement at Waipareira. The staff at Waipareira have been truly amazing, providing us with tons of recommendations and invites. Some highlights from our experience in Aotearoa have been; Waiheke Island, seeing a kiwi in Rotorua, the Waitamo glow worm caves, a rugby game, Hobbiton movie set and eating at every fish and chip shop.

Hobbit Holes