Who has changed your life?

As a Pākehā, learning te reo Māori has given Chloe (Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai) a new understanding of how the world can work. 

I guess we all grew up in a pākehā learning situation where things are very rigid and you do things certain ways, and there’s lots of rules to follow. And yeah, in te ao Māori there is lots of tikanga to follow, but there’s also a lot of just being a bit chill and going with the flow, which has been a big adjustment for me.

And as a parent, that’s kind of seeped into my parenting style, where sometimes I know it’s okay if I’ve got my daughter at wānanga and she’s running around a bit — like no one’s going to worry about that. Whereas in some other scenarios I probably feel like I’m being frowned down on, but at wānanga it’s very welcoming.

And yeah, that’s definitely impacted who I am as a mum. Also just in teaching tikanga to my daughter, which she has actually taught me a lot through going to kaupapa Māori education. It’s just created a different upbringing than what I had. Much more fluid and I learn from her. She learns from me. There’s a lot of mutual exchanges.