My Field Placement with Te Whānau o Waipareira - Part 1

By Sarah Wood, 2nd year MDP student
 

Views from Devonport

This summer (well, it’s winter here), I am completing my international field placement at Te Whānau o Waipareira, an urban Māori organization in West Auckland, Aotearora New Zealand. I am working with Wai- Research, the kaupapa Māori  research unit at Waipareira, which provides research and evidence to support Waipareira’s programs and services.

As for the specific projects I am involved with, one of the main activities I’m working on is writing a literature review on kaumatua (elders) ageing. In accordance with the population trends in Aotearoa New Zealand generally, the population of older Māori is increasing and I am exploring what is currently known about Māori ageing and what gaps and opportunities exist in the current literature pertaining to this growing population. Other research projects I’ve been involved with include assisting with ongoing research on Māori mental health as well as proofreading various Wai-Research publications.

Mission Bay on our first trip to the beach

Thus far, aside from the practical research and writing skills I’ve been honing, it has been incredibly valuable to learn about kaupapa Māori  research and the ways Māori  culture and language are incorporated into the organization more generally. As an Indigenous person, there has been a lot of opportunity to share our cultures and histories and gain deeper understandings of the strengths, challenges, and opportunities present in our different Indigenous communities.

Aside from placement, I’ve been enjoying getting to know Aotearoa. Fellow MDP student Paige and I have spent weekends in Rotorua, Wellington, climbing volcanoes and visiting every island in Auckland. 

Sarah Wood and Paige Sillaby at a rainy lookout in Wellington

Indigenous Innovation and Entrepreneurship showcased at the Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival

By Kara Passey, 1st year MDP student

Powwow Dancer

On a sunny Saturday on June 24, the 2017 Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival held their annual Pow Wow competition in Vincent Massey Park in Ottawa, Ontario. A corresponding event, delivered in partnership with the Social Innovation Division, Indigenous Social Innovation & Social Finance, within the Employment and Social Development Canada department of the Strategic and Service Policy Branch, took place to highlight the wealth of Indigenous entrepreneurship that is showcased at the Pow Wow. The event, dubbed the Pow Wow Pitch competition, was created out of acknowledgement that the Pow Wow is historically a place of innovative social enterprise through entrepreneurship and trade, and takes on the format of a is a Dragon’s Den style competition. 

Nineteen different Indigenous entrepreneurs had the opportunity to pitch their projects for 60 seconds to a panel of judges. Those selected for the second round of judging received coaching and mentorship to prep them for their next round of pitches. Ultimately, the finalists were decided by a panel of judges including, Gail Chamberlain, and Kathryn McDade, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Employment and Social Development Canada, and Director General, Catherine Scott, Director General, Employment and Social Development Canada. The National Aboriginal Capital Corporation Association (NACCA) contributed prize funds.

Treeteas Brewing

The event was an excellent way to display the diversity of Indigenous entrepreneurship and innovation; competitors ranged from beauty products, fashion, food, to community wellness projects. The majority of projects always had socially consciousness initiatives incorporated into their mandate – such as Cheek Bone Beauty, who donates 10% of all purchases to First Nations Child & Caring Society of Canada. Other competitors included Jay Soule of Chippewar, a graphic design/illustrator/print shop who is possibly best known for his amazing t-shirts or recreation of western movie posters with Indigenous imagery, or Treeteas Brewing, an ice tea manufacturer based in Georgina Island.

Chef Anna Cote won the first place prize of $5000.00 with The Birch Bite, a catering business which delivers healthy meals for her community and also provides classes so that community members can cook for themselves. The second place winner of $2500.00 was Lisa Commanda, a Youth Diversion Worker for Kitigan Zibi, for her new project Commanda Security and Dispatch Services. The third place prize of $1000.00 went to Minda Forcier, for her handmade health and beauty products, which she sells under the name of Anokian Nature. Finally, the people’s choice award was given to Ginger Cote, for her project where she is creating an Indigenous focused toolkit for expecting mothers. 

L-R: Sunshine Tenasco, Kirsty Jackson, Kara Passey, Lee Seto-Thomas & Greg Dreaver

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

Serving Where the Need is Greater

By Nana Araba Asaam, 2nd year MDP student

The end of the seemingly long road is finally here! I cannot believe how fast these months have gone by. When I started the MDP program, I always wondered when it would end or if I would even be able to complete this journey successfully. Well, almost two years later, I find myself writing about my final field placement experience which crowns this most wonderful journey. To my cohort, I will miss you guys! All the best in your future endeavors!

Peguis Flood Response - On site with colleagues

I have had a great time this past 12 weeks with the Manitoba Canadian Red Cross (MB CRC). Before signing on to work as a practicum student, I had established a relationship with Red Cross as a volunteer so I had the confidence that I would gain something valuable at the end of the placement and I was quite right. The Canadian Red Cross is one of the largest humanitarian organizations in the world whose mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity in Canada and around the world. What attracted me to this organization is the diverse opportunities given to people to voluntarily demonstrate their caring for others in need. Since this is what I have always been interested in and what the MDP is all about, I saw working with MB CRC as an opportunity to demonstrate how important it is to me to care for others in need.

Within the MB CRC I worked with the Disaster Management (DM) Program. This is the program that prepares for and manages the organization’s response to disasters throughout all of Canada. A cornerstone activity during response is the delivery of services to clients, to provide relief immediately following a disaster, and to support recovery efforts for extended periods of time. During the first few weeks with DM, I responded to the Manitoba flooding which affected numerous communities including Peguis, Long Plain, Sioux Valley, and Canupawakpa First Nations.

Emergency Response Operation Centre

I was further tasked to work on the First Nation communities demographic and disaster preparedness survey which required me to precisely apply my research skills gained from the MDP program. This survey is intended to help DM know more about all 63 First Nation communities in Manitoba, how resilient and prepared they are to handle disasters such as floods, fires and tornados that may threaten their safety and lives when they occur. Working on this project, I learned a lot more about First Nation communities through face to face and over the phone conversations with community leaders and members.  

I also worked on the Ready When the Time Comes (RWTC) project which involved searching for organizations who would be willing to lend their workers as volunteers to help provide emergency relief when a large-scale disaster occurs. RWTC trains employees and members of MB CRC partnering corporations and organizations to become disaster response reservists. This means in the event of a large-scale disaster these individuals are called upon to provide the Red Cross team with response assistance. The purpose of this program is to develop an emergency preparedness and response culture by increasing the volunteer capacity of the Red Cross. This was a very important project that demanded that I use diligent decision making skills to determine which organization was to be partnered with. 

To broaden the scope of my experience with MB CRC, I also accepted to work with the Respect Education program. This program works to create safe environments free of violence – abuse, bullying, exploitation – through prevention education and response. The focus of the program is on children and youth. To keep young people safe, Respect Education informs adults, youth and children, and works with individuals of all genders, backgrounds and status. 

CRC Mission Statement

Observing and working with staff and volunteers who give off their time, skill and very best to help the most vulnerable, I now have a deeper understanding of what it means to be humanitarian. I am glad to be sharing in CRC’s mission “to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity in Canada and around the world”. 

The rest of the summer I responded to the Manitoba fires which threatened the safety of Poplar River First Nation as well as other neighboring communities. I encourage all my friends, cohort, and anybody who is reading this to volunteer for CRC to contribute to the success of its mission. I can guarantee that doing this would bring inner satisfaction, peace and joy.