engaging
communities

Noel Woods:

E te whānau, nau mai, e rarau, mōrena, ata mārie. And welcome to Aroha in Action. Of course, our Family Start Hui 2023, presented by Tākai.

Maraea Teepa:

We'll be taking you on a journey of āio, aroha, calm and peace, and just taking you through that journey.

Part of Action 32, which supported Family Start to support our kaimahi out in the field.

Koha Aperahama:

Manaaki. Manaaki is absolutely about maintaining and ensuring that mana is protected, te mana aki, taking care of what's being said, honouring the story that's shared in the space.

Noel Woods:

Just thinking of our kaimahi from Family Start and the obligations to Te Tiriti, when you think of mātauranga and some people think it's just mō ngā kaimahi Māori, but it's important to build the capability of kaimahi tauiwi, our Tiriti partners, and giving them the confidence to weave into te ao Māori nē?

Koha Aperahama:

Start to do some whaiaro whakaaro — is that self-reflection.

Why I talked about momo in the first beginning and your taonga tuku iho and your taonga tuku atu was really to talk about the reflection on self. Because actually, when we're in the practice space, whether we're engaging with whānau in homes, whether we're engaging with colleagues at work, it actually talks about starting to consider — where am I at with myself?

Maraea Teepa:

We've actually got an awesome wahine. Part of Yoga Warriors, based in Ōtautahi, we've got Letesha Hallett. Letesha will take us on a journey to realign our hā, to keep us calm for today.

Letesha Hallett:

Lean forward into our warrior pose here.

Noel Woods:

E hoa, what is your number one tip for whānau supporters out there to take care of their own hauora?

Letesha Hallett:

As long as you're pouring into your cup, you have the capacity to pour into others. So just making sure that you're strong within your hinengaro and your tinana and your mental health is really important.

Noel Woods:

Te Whare Tukutuku is a woven house of thoughts, whakaaro, and ideas. Now, we got five workshops with some great kaikōrero from communities across the motu sharing their mātauranga — with some focuses on supporting tāngata whaikaha, trauma-informed practice, getting the story right, responding to sexualised behaviour between children and when to be worried, and also navigating the legal system.

Maraea Teepa:

Now, remember we sent everyone the pukapuka. If you look on page 70 and 71, on those pages is a really good kōrero around how I engage with my whānau. It's a nice kōrero, thinking about the workshops that we just finished in Te Whare Tukutuku around your practice.

This session is tuku atu, tuku mai — courageous conversations.

How do we create safe places to have courageous conversations?

Hiraani Hutana:

I love the courageous conversation, but if you channel it just straight to aroha conversations, then straight away it's a safe conversation.

Jason Tiatia:

It's courageous because you're brave enough to talk about the elephant in the room, and then it becomes, "Oh, actually, it wasn't too bad."

Noel Woods:

We're heading to our whare toi again and just like to welcome back our live illustrators. In fact, the team of three of them are right here. It's pretty exciting. I'm looking forward to the presentation.

Yasmine, man, what have you been hearing throughout the day?

Yasmine El Orfi:

Up on your screens, you should be able to see the full image. And all the ideas linked together beautifully, like from the story of Nanny, Paremata, and "He kākano ahau." All the way through around.

Maraea Teepa:

You can see some of the Poll Everywhere results around your own oranga and looking after your own oranga. And you can see there's heaps of kōrero.

I'm going to introduce you to Whaea Deb.

Deb Rewiri:

Sometimes I think we focus on the problem too hard and too much. The ability to actually look at how our whānau systems have managed to survive wherever they've come from.

If we're respectful and responsive, if we have empathy and compassion on board, then the ability for us to get alongside whānau means that they begin to trust us. So, whānau workers, the ability of you to develop trust with the whānau is actually just your process of accepting them for where they’re at.

Maraea Teepa:

“Roll on the ground. Or play with your paper brain.” That's right. You should have all received your paper brain, your 3D brain.

Noel Woods:

Thanks, e te tuahine Maraea, Whaea Deb, for that beautiful kaupapa kōrero. Which leads into our final panel, which is all about whakawātea — supporting the healing space.

Crystal Pekepo-Ratu:

Because whakawātea is not something that you can just — is an action — but it can also just be something that is naturally done. Forgiveness is probably a big thing because it enables you to be free.

Noel Woods:

Now, of course, we're going to bring in Ngarino to whakawātea to tātou nei kaupapa.

Ngarino Te Waati:

Hei ka mihi atu ana kia tatou.

This is just a very simple way that I like to whakawātea — kia kore — breathing out until you have no oxygen left. You'll start to feel a little bit of calmness going through your body at the moment.

Now for you to be able to connect into the foresight and the insight of what you've emotionally processed today. There's a lot of information that could be a downloaded overload, so I want you to just hold on to the things that really mean the most.

Kia rite. One more time — closing the eyes. Hā ki roto. Tahi. Rua. Toru. Whā.

Noel Woods:

Massive mihi to all of the kaimahi at Family Start. Shout out to the production team today and finally the team at Tākai for presenting this kaupapa whakahirahira.

Heoi anō. Hei whakakapi i tō tātou nei kaupapa.

Tuia te rangi. Tuia te papa. Tuia ngā kōrero. Tuia ngā wānanga. Kia mau, kia ita. Kia kuru pounamu te rongo. Mō te oranga ngā mokopuna.

Haumi ē, hui ē, tāiki ē!