This is an excerpt from an upcoming eBook and collaboration by Aroha Puketapu with Graeme (Kereama) Smith. Watch this space for more…!
If you carry one handle of the kete and I carry the other handle we share the load.
If I am left to bear the load on my own I become discouraged and the taonga inside the kete is looked upon as a burden.
But by each carrying a handle, we can discuss the harvest within.
We can talk about the quality of the kete or how long it has lasted.
We can talk about the type of harakeke selected to created that kete and how functional it is proven to be, who planted that pa harakeke and who cares for it.
We can talk about who holds its whakapapa or where it came from.
We can also talk about the skill of the weaver and appreciate her gifts and talent.
We can talk about the quality of the harvest and how to improve next season’s planting.
We can discuss the weather and this year’s conditions that produced the quality of the crop.
If the load is shared by us both we can walk and talk and enjoy our relationship or kinship. We can laugh thus creating trust.
We can plan strategies about who we will share the taonga or contents of our kete with.
We can discuss who needs it most and we can talk about equal portions based on that need.
We can essentially practise an egalitarian existence.
Tuakana Teina is far more than just mentoring someone in a skill that I possess.
It is a collaboration of appreciation based on shared mutual equal respect for one another.
This is an excerpt from an upcoming eBook and collaboration by Aroha Puketapu with Graeme (Kereama) Smith. Watch this space for more…!
Interested in reading more about Tuakana-teina?
Click here for all of my posts on this topic. Also, I have a book on learner-centred teaching that incorporates these and other concepts from a Māori worldview. Check it out here on Gumroad.
Kia ora! Hey, I'd love to know what you think.