A skeleton staff ably led by Mel Potaka-Osborne were on hand to welcome two Indigenous manuhiri to our Whakauae offices this month. Vanessa (Vee) Tait (O-pipon-na-piwin Cree Nation, Manitoba, Canada) and Chyloe Healy (Kainai/Blood Tribe, Alberta, Canada) called in to visit as part of a tour of the North Island following the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga International Indigenous Research Conference held in Auckland from 12-15 November. Both women work at the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba and for Chyloe, it was her first visit to Whanganui and to Whakauae. Vee is a return visitor, having spent time with the team on her first visit to Aotearoa in 2016, during which she spent 3 months at the Waikato-Tainui Endowed College.
Amohia hosted the two for lunch before they left the rohe, where conversations turned to politics and the impacts of right-leaning governments on Indigenous health and social services; the experiences of Indigenous communities through Covid-19 in our respective communities; and the phenomenon of “Pretendians”, which fortunately is not something Māori have had to deal with in Aotearoa.
While our visitors did not get onto the awa as hoped this time around (the weather was unseasonably cold and a number of our team were away sick), Vee and Chyloe nevertheless enjoyed warm Whakauae hospitality. We look forward to being able to visit them in Winnipeg, Manitoba some time in the near future as we extend our partnerships with colleagues from Turtle Island.
A skeleton staff ably led by Mel Potaka-Osborne were on hand to welcome two Indigenous manuhiri to our Whakauae offices this month. Vanessa (Vee) Tait (O-pipon-na-piwin Cree Nation, Manitoba, Canada) and Chyloe Healy (Kainai/Blood Tribe, Alberta, Canada) called in to visit as part of a tour of the North Island following the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga International Indigenous Research Conference held in Auckland from 12-15 November. Both women work at the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba and for Chyloe, it was her first visit to Whanganui and to Whakauae. Vee is a return visitor, having spent time with the team on her first visit to Aotearoa in 2016, during which she spent 3 months at the Waikato-Tainui Endowed College.
Amohia hosted the two for lunch before they left the rohe, where conversations turned to politics and the impacts of right-leaning governments on Indigenous health and social services; the experiences of Indigenous communities through Covid-19 in our respective communities; and the phenomenon of “Pretendians”, which fortunately is not something Māori have had to deal with in Aotearoa.
While our visitors did not get onto the awa as hoped this time around (the weather was unseasonably cold and a number of our team were away sick), Vee and Chyloe nevertheless enjoyed warm Whakauae hospitality. We look forward to being able to visit them in Winnipeg, Manitoba some time in the near future as we extend our partnerships with colleagues from Turtle Island.
