I have had the privilege of working as a kaiako (tutor/lecturer) at Te Wananga o Aotearoa teaching a one year certificate course in Indigenous Research that started last year. Today marks the end of the journey for my first cohort that culminated in a 30+ final presentation on an indigenous topic that each student has undertaken during the year.It has been such a privilege to walk alongside each personal journey and then to see the completed project/presentation and listen to the life lessons and new learnings has been a real blessing and leaves me very humbled.
I have to thank Te Wananga o Aotearoa as being the first Indigenous institute that I am aware of that allows students to learn about Indigenous Research at a Certificate level rather than to await having to start a degree course before having access to such knowledge and understandings.
It is information that I wished I'd have had before undertaking my undergraduate studies, even into secondary school. In fact, I would challenge any teachers working with children from indigenous backgrounds to take this course of learning because I believe that it will make you a better teacher, a better researcher and have a better understanding of the place of indigenous people in society.
Very often, indigenous peoples have been undervalued, their languages seen as being unimportant and customs and cultures treated as being old fashioned and odd in this so called post modern world. This course affirms the knowledge and place of Indigenous knowledge in society and encourages us to consider the ramifications if we don't pass them on.
My next cohort starts in a couple of weeks time which gives me time to reflect, recover, mark the work and then to start all over again. Definitely, an inspired course that aspires students to affirm indigenous knowledge into it's rightful space...
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