小优传媒

Ehara t腻ku toa I te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini 

My strength is not as an individual, but as a collective 

This whakatauk墨 meant so much to me as I sat at my desk in my whare tari on the first day of te wiki o te reo M腻ori 2022. I was playing waiata while I waited for the Ohu Inspire wh腻nau to come online and join our first hui of the week.  

We are a collective on a journey to change our perspectives, to open and free our minds, build curiosity and encourage comfort as we authentically embed Te Ao M腻ori into 小优传媒. 

Te wiki o te reo M腻ori meant more to us, collectively, this year than any previous year.

Thinking back to last year, it was a time when our clients asked us to include te reo in learning as a tick-box exercise; a time when we would say 鈥榙ecolonising鈥� and cringe; a time when we didn鈥檛 all know why embracing and embedding te ao M腻ori into our every day genuinely and authentically was the right thing to do.  

In 2021 our Mahuru M腻ori moment was coming together to do a Kahoot! and taking a screenshot.

Since that Kahoot!, we鈥檝e made a stand, we鈥檝e made a change and are on the waka of change. We鈥檙e asking questions of each other and our clients, we used to be afraid to ask, the learning we鈥檙e designing is different and the impact we have is greater.  

Already te wiki o te reo M腻ori 2022 has been very different. We have a plan. A plan that has: 

• videos of our 小优传媒 team opening each day with a karakia and sharing a whakatauk墨 that resonates with them 
• planned activities and challenges for each day, shared during our 9am daily virtual hui 
• different waiata shared each day  
• our Te-Whanganui-a-Tara Ohu Inspire t墨ma coming together for a karakia, waiata and kapa haka session 
• our fortnightly 鈥楧ecolonising Ohu Inspire鈥� hui on Friday focusing on 鈥�50 years on from the Te Reo M腻ori petition鈥�. 

We don鈥檛 know exactly where our te ao M腻ori journey will take us, what we do know is that it will continue on past te wiki o te reo M腻ori, growing and changing as we do.  

Karawhiua!!  

Ki te Kotahi te k腻kaho, ka whati; ki te k腻puia, e kore e whati 

If a reed stands alone, it can be broken; if it is in a group, it cannot. 

Here are some whakaaro from the team:

鈥�Inspire鈥檚 te reo journey and my personal one has accelerated rapidly in the last year. There isn鈥檛 a day that goes by without M腻ori kupu and phrases being used in everyday conversation. 

It feels like I鈥檓 listening with 鈥榥ew ears鈥� where I can pick-up more words from what I am hearing and try to make sense of the k艒rero. I find myself quietly practising pronunciation of new words when I hear them, trying to get them right. I鈥檓 also digging deeper into the words and discovering that many of them are 'constructed' from smaller words that I already know.鈥�

Dan Tohill
Group CEO

鈥淚t鈥檚 been an awesome learning journey for me exploring Te Ao M腻ori worldview. I think the biggest part for me is just knowing that I have got a better understanding of the place where I live, Aotearoa, its roots and beautiful people. I think it鈥檚 so important that everyone embraces the beautiful language, richness of wisdom and karakia it offers and sees it as a way to love people in their communities, neighbourhoods and life a little bit more and better because we understand each other better. 

It's been wonderful from an organisational point of view to be able to help other organisations include this in their learning as they also move forward in their journey of incorporating te reo M腻ori and Te Ao M腻ori into their workplaces. Because we are doing the journey ourselves, I feel like I鈥檓 able to better help as a learning designer.鈥�

Mitelene Enslin
Learning Designer

鈥淚t鈥檚 so easy to get caught up in your own way of thinking and belief systems, even when you have put in the mahi and spent the majority of your life trying to be a good ally for M腻ori. But it wasn鈥檛 until a conversation (difficult parts and all) became normalised and a structured part of my working week, that I had the opportunity to listen and learn why conversations around race in New Zealand are more important and in-depth than we are given the opportunity to learn about throughout school and everyday life.  

• Why do we open and close a hui with a karakia? 
• Why is whakawhanaungatanga important? 
• Why is it so important that the use of Te Reo and Tikanga is normalised and integrated into society by all New Zealanders, not only M腻ori? 

These questions, along with many others have been topics of discussion since we began our journey as a team to Decolonise 小优传媒, and by being asked them I have learnt things that have increased my knowledge in Te Reo and Tikanga, but I have also learnt why it is my responsibility as a P腻keh腻 person to understand why it is so important that we ask and answer these questions.鈥�

Kirsty Green
Delivery Manager 

鈥淢y learning so far has been around the depth and breadth of the language and the meaning of the kupu. Flowing from that is the richness of time that is spent focused on he tangata and relationships which brings life and meaning to much more than the transactional way that can be presented sometimes in life.鈥�

Kate Bartholomew 
Project Manager 

鈥淐elebrating Te Wiki o te Reo M腻ori last year felt like having pieces of a beautiful puzzle in our hands. We got to see glimpses but didn't have the whole picture yet. We've since taken a holistic journey as an organisation, gaining more and more insight into the Te Ao M腻ori perspective. We've stepped out of our comfort zones in many ways to open ourselves to learning. We didn't only see and listen, but also spoke, shared, danced and sang. We got to learn more about our t墨ma in the process as well, which added to the richness of our journey. This year I feel like we now have so many more puzzle pieces to add to the picture and I'm excited about what's to come in the next year.鈥�

Frieda de Bruyn
Learning Designer 

鈥淥ur journey to really understanding M腻ori is about so much more than the language. It鈥檚 been wonderful and moving learning about the significance of many aspects of M腻ori culture, which can only enhance our understanding and appreciation of te Ao M腻ori.  

From a more mahi-focused view, incorporating kupu into our everyday conversations and seeing many of our clients share our genuine excitement and desire to make this an integral part of the learning experience, rather than the tokenistic way it鈥檚 been done in the past, proves that we are all 鈥榬owing in the same direction鈥�.鈥� 

Katy Rhodes
Quality Assurance 

鈥淚鈥檓 relatively new to Ohu Inspire and it鈥檚 been really exciting for me to join a team which has been very active in its journey towards the inclusion of Te Ao M腻ori. 

I also love being part of a team where people feel comfortable giving things a go and feel comfortable being active in their participation. Learning any new language can be super scary and I think it鈥檚 important to be in an environment where it鈥檚 safe to fail. It鈥檚 also important to be in an environment where it's okay to feel uncomfortable at times, which is something I think Ohu Inspire do really well.鈥�

Ben Hogg
Marketing Manager