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[ Video Resource ]
- Title: Insights into kaupapa Māori: Kotahitanga
- Description: This video explores Kotahitanga.
- Video Duration: 5 minutes
- Video URL: https://player.vimeo.com/video/772277065?h=e4499bddd5
- Transcript: English Whilst sitting together
English
Whilst sitting together, talking to one another, and working together, the result is unity. Therefore this is our means of unifying our thoughts so that we can move forward together.
For me, when I see or when I hear kotahitanga, it's the uniting of people. It's the uniting of groups of people. It's the uniting and unifying of thoughts and ideas and intentions. And while we can do that, we are not saying that there's the single way that we're doing, we're choosing to do. But we might be united and that we are going to strengthen a kaupapa in our school. And there are many ways to get there. And we will draw on the skills of everybody in our kura to get there, but our unifying intention is that we're going to get there together. I think unity works like this. There is no falter or no split. Everyone is joined as one. So yeah, that’s the unifying of people and ideas and intentions. Unity is the most important thing to me.
Rawe. And it is exactly that for me too, that it is about the whole acting as one which is the literal translation. Nē, kotahitanga, to be as one. But that then requires us to think about what good partnership looks like and what does oneness look like, either in our whānau contexts or in our educational spaces, in our classrooms, engaging with whānau. And I know that working with ākonga, certainly lots of drawing on student voice. They've talked lots under the mantle of kotahitanga, about power sharing, and I think that that's really powerful. While we would say that's not a translation of kotahitanga, it's a powerful indicator of the presence of being unified that, you know, that we've got multiple people who are working and able to give effect with the power to whatever is at hand.
There are key questions before us. How do we implement this thing called kotahitanga? And how do we unify ourselves, the students and teachers together, with all their different skills? Yes. That is a difficult question, but I do have an answer. And that’s the whole power of kotahitanga; that's what it's about. It's about saying your skills and your perspectives and your personality and your characteristics are all needed and they need to be maintained. And that's going to take all of that for us to accomplish our mahi. And so the simplest way I think about it is - when I'm in my classroom teaching, I want the entire rōpū to get there. I don't just want some of the rōpū or the majority of the rōpū to get there. It's really important to me that we get there together. We need to unite. Unity, the unity of people, and the relationship between people. Indeed, perhaps it is the unification of the level. So, perhaps the kotahitanga is about the people in the room.
And the strategy you use is tuakana-teina. And the tuakana would be the ones that are more capable than the teina. and then the philosophy behind that. With your contribution and my contribution, we shall all thrive.
And I think it goes back to that whole idea too of what we understand unified to be or oneness. So we might have a unified vision but not necessarily a uniform approach. And that's because we've got significant diversity within our whānau. We know that our own children have different needs, yeah? But the vision is to have them wonderful contributors to our society, you know, with their identity, language and culture intact. But that will mean different things for each of them.
Te Reo Māori
I runga i te noho tahi, te kōrero tahi te mahi tahi ka puta kotahitanga. Nō reira, koinā tā tātou kaupapa hei kotahi ngā whakaaro kia haere whakamua te waka.
Mōku ake, ina kite au, rongo rānei i te kotahitanga ko te whakakotahitanga o te tangata. Ko te whakakotahitanga o ngā rōpū. Ko te whakatōpūtanga me te whakakotahitanga o ngā whakaaro me ngā ariā me ngā takunetanga. Ahakoa ka tareka e tātou tērā, Kāore au i te kī koinā anake te huarahi e whāia ana, engari koinei tā mātou e kōwhiri nei. Engari kia kotahi tātou i roto i ngā mahi ki te whakapakari ake i te kaupapa i roto i tō tātou kura. Otirā he nui ngā huarahi e tae atu ai ki reira. Ka nanao atu ki ngā pūkenga o te katoa i roto i tō tātou kura e tae atu ai ki reira, engari ko te wawata o te whakakotahi, kia tae ngātahi ki taua wāhi. Ki tāku nei, ko te kotahitanga o te katoa pēnei ai. Kore he whati, kore he pakaru, ā, ka hono tahi tātou. Nā reira, āe, koirā te whakakotahitanga o te tangata, o ngā ariā me ngā takunetanga. Kotahitanga, ko tērā te mea ki ahau.
Rawe. He pērā hoki mōku, ko te kaupapa kia kotahi te mahi, otirā koinā tonu tana whakapākehātanga. Arā kia noho kotahi ai. Engari me whai whakaaro tātou ki te āhua o te hononga pai, otirā ki te āhua o te kotahitanga i roto i te horopaki o ngā whānau, o ngā wāhi mātauranga rānei, i roto i ngā akomanga me te whakawhitiwhiti ki ngā whānau. E mōhio ana ahau ko te mahi ngātahi me ngā ākonga he nui te mahi nanao atu ki te reo o ngā ākonga. He nui ā rātou kōrero i raro i te kotahitanga mō te toha i te mana, otirā he kaha ēnā kōrero. Ahakoa e kore pea tātou e kī koinā katoa te whakapākehātanga o te kotahitanga, he tohu kaha o te kitenga o te kotahitanga, me kī, he tokomaha ngā tāngata e mahi ana, e whakatinana ana i taua mana kia oti ai he mahi.
He pātai matua kei mua i te aroaro me pēhea te whakatinana o tēnei mea ko te kotahitanga ki te akomanga me te mea hoki, me pēhea te whakakotahi ai tātou ngā ākonga, ngā kaiako me ō rātou rerekētanga o ngā pūkenga, ae. He pātai uaua tērā, engari he whakautu tāku. Koinā katoa te mana o te kotahitanga, koinā te pūtake. Ko te kī ake, me pupuri ō pūkenga me ō whakaaro me tō haukiri, me ō āhuatanga. E tutuki ai ā tātou mahi katoa, koinei te āhua o ngā mahi hei whai. Nā, ko te huarahi ngāwari rawa o te whai whakaaro i a au i roto i te akomanga e whakaako ana, kia tae te rōpū katoa ki taua wāhi. Kāore i te hiahia kia eke noa ētahi o te rōpū, te nuinga rānei, engari he mea nui ki ahau kia tae ngātahi tātou. Me whakakotahi ai tātou. Te kotahitanga ko te kotahitanga o te tangata me te hononga o tangata ki te tangata. Ehara tērā pea ko te whakakotahitanga o te taumata, me kī. Nā, tērā pea ko te tikanga ia o te kotahitanga, ko te hunga katoa kei te akomanga.
Ā, ko te rautaki ka whakamahia ko te tuakana teina, otirā he mātau ake ngā tuākana i ngā teina me te kaupapa hoki kei muri i tērā, ko tōu rourou, ko tōku rourou ka ora te katoa o tātou ka kotahi tātou.
Ki ōku whakaaro ka hoki anō ki te whakaaro nui hoki o tā tātou e mōhio nei mō te whakakotahitanga. Tērā pea he kotahi te moemoeā, engari he rerekē te whāinga. I pērā ai nā te mea he nui te kanorau i roto i tō tātou whānau. E mōhio ana tātou he rerekē ngā hiahia o ā tātou tamariki, nē? Engari ko te moemoeā ia, kia whai wāhi nui rātou ki tō tātou porihanga. Arā, kia mau tonu te tuakiri, te reo me te ahurea. Engari he rerekē anō te whakamārama ki tēnā, ki tēnā o rātou.