As we entered the marae, I thought of that whakatauaki:

He tangata i akona ki te whare, tunga ki te marae tau ana

One who has learned in the house and on the marae stands with dignity

It is said that one who has learnt marae customs, who has applied themselves to the house of learning, will be confident, will speak well and be admired by all.

And I cannot help but think that the awesome wonder of our marae can indeed provide all we need to know - including setting the standards of professional behaviour, integrity and conduct for all who have the honour of working in the social work profession.

The world of our marae opens our horizons to the world beyond.

But how does this work in a practical sense? What can you as Bachelor of Social Work students learn from simply being here at Koraunui marae? What can I, as co-leader of the Maori Party gain from time spent at Koraunui?

I think firstly, of the foundations of this marae, established in the sixties from the dreams of two Maori community officers who sought a safe and friendly environment for so-called youth at risk.

It was a dream that today flourishes in the huge range of services available here – computer skills, numeracy and literacy skills, employment skills, Hauora-a-iwi services, even a surgery.

There is a mother group, a playgroup, emergency housing, whanau support.

And of course this Marae is renown for the kaupapa of Mau Taiaha that are held in the context of Te Whare Tu Taua o Aotearoa.

This is a marae where the arts of karanga, raranga, rongoa, waiata, whakapapa, are as treasured as the youth activities, the health clinics, the social services.

So I return to that challenge – one who has learned in the house and on the marae, stands with dignity.

What is it that Koraunui Marae can offer which is different, which is unique, which distinguished the learning one can acquire in this setting from say a private training provider or an alternative education programme – although I understand they do this as well!

As they say from out of the mouths of babes, thou obtains strength.

And so I conducted some robust market research from the Old Friends website, to find out what some of the young people who had grown up here, thought.

Lavinia Pewhairangi reflected on her days, saying:

“As a young child, growing up in the everyday Maori environment on a marae was exciting. Helping out if need be was important when I was there….the marae was a whanau environment”.

Then there’s Janie Wichman:

My mum and grandad worked in the kohanga reo. Then the marae was part of my growing up, doing kapa haka there, attending tangi and weddings, catering for different hui.

Miria Saddlier – known as Meedz - remembered, “I learnt a lot from them including Maori health and a bit of computers, but mostly respect”.

And finally Jamie Tauti said, “Use 2 have da coolest live ins at Koraunui marae……Man I miss dose days”.

I wanted to share some of these words from the rangatahi of this marae, because they say so much about how we can make a positive and significant difference to our world, through the impact we make on our children’s lives.

The memories of these Koraunui young people were not so much about what they did here, but who was here, and the values and kaupapa they instilled in them.

They learnt about manaakitanga – looking out for each other, treating each other with respect, fostering a climate of encouragement and mutual support.

They learnt about whanaungatanga – being inspired by each other, listening and learning from their kuia and koroua, following the lead of their tuakana, being motivated and challenged by their teina.

They became schooled and immersed in the foundations of the tikanga their tipuna had left for them as the ultimate expression of identity and collective strength.

As social work students, you will have tasted from a diverse and exotic menu of experiences as you come to the end of your second year of your degree.

Whether in the classes of Te Wananga o Aotearoa, or on placement, you will have no doubt been challenged by the difficult stresses confronting families; the every day demands of the workload facing front line staff.

You might have encountered the destructive force of abuse, the rage, the humiliation, the resentment, the fear, the anger, the aggression, the desperation of families in crisis.

As students of life, you will have been bombarded by the anguish and pain that violence uproots in our community.

And there may be days when you wonder, is this the right path for me?

My message to you, is to return to those thoughts of our Old Friends heroes. Those thoughts which uplift us, which restore to us the essence of one innocent four letter word.

Hope.

Hope is what the rangatahi of Koraunui marae have in abundance.

Hope restored the badly vandalised Plunket rooms of this community into a brightly painted community centre – a centre which last year featured in a brand new children’s book –appropriately named The Happy Little House.

Hope was what the tamariki of this marae took to the Taita subway, working with local groups and schools to paint pictures on the walls on the subway – pictures coated with anti-graffiti paint!

The tamariki from all over this community worked together over six months, in the process developing relationships which were all about creating a positive future.

My point in sharing just some of the treasures on this very marae, is not to act as a key sponsor for DIY marae; or as an all-out promo for Koraunui marae.

Because I firmly believe that in every community, in every whanau, hapu, iwi, we have the potential and the resources right at our finger tips to establish a happy little house of our own.

Your role as social workers is not to pick up the paint brush or hammer on your own.

Your role is to have the eyes and more importantly the vision, to know the beauty that is possible underneath the most damaged of families.

As social workers, you will be expected to make critical life decisions. You will face the fire of families under siege. You will also bear the brunt of every case that hits the news; every tragedy will be yours.

And so your toolkit needs to include ample supplies of resilience, healthy stores of optimism alongside pragmatism, and the strength to know that you do not have the solutions.

To be effective the solutions must always be owned by those whose lives you may inhabit for a moment in time.

But in order to smooth out the pathway towards enduring solutions, there are indeed strategies which help along the way. Leland Ruwhiu describes these as, and I quote;

“The foundation stones of social work partnership, resistance and activism for both Maori and non-Maori social workers, have been refined on the raging fires of Te Tiriti O Waitangi”.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi ensures that Maori wisdom and knowledge is seen as a valid basis for social work action with whanau. It means that Maori don’t have to discard their culture at the door.

It also means that when you work with whanau, whether you are Maori or non-Maori, that you give due respect to the value of rangatiratanga. Or again as Leland Ruwhiu describes it, that you

“tap into that whanau potential to advance mana-enhancing decision-making”.

The opportunity that Kim Murphy-Stewart is sharing with you, to explore the concepts of reconciliation, of matua whangai, of what he calls an ‘optimistic strategy’ are all geared around this notion of tapping into that whanau potential.

I am an absolute believer in the power of the optimistic strategy.

One has to be in the current political environment – an environment which one could say was more interested in smokes and mirrors, character assassination and personal mud-raking, than it is about supporting families to be the best that they can be.

The Maori Party believes that our greatest opportunity lies in all of us developing solutions to create a different future for our children.

We do not adhere to the notion of one size fits all, or a quick fix- when we think of the generations of doubts, of disparities, of deficit thinking that has gathered around the meaning of family.

We believe the meaning of family is that which we see as having been learnt on this marae.

It is about the nature of knowledge and knowing, what Dr Charles Te Ahukaramu Royal refers to as Matauranga, Mohiotanga, and Maramatanga.

Positive, strengths-based whanau are grown from the passing of knowing from generation to generation; the valuing ofmatauranga.

Resilient whanau are created from learning to trust one’s internalised knowing, themohiotanga of simply knowing what to do.

And all powerful, optimistic whanau come from the illumination ofmaramatanga – the quality of learning that comes with transformation.

As social workers, as members of whanau, as politicians, as people, we all have the honour and the privilege of making sure the nature of knowledge and knowing is valued.

It is our responsibility to ensure our families benefit from matauranga, are able to trust the strength of mohiotanga, are given opportunities to appreciate maramatanga.

Just as the world of our marae opens our horizons to the world beyond; you too, can be part of the process, which opens the door to optimistic possibilities for the families you work with.

We must value this role as one of the most important opportunities that our communities have, to make a difference.

We must value this role, politically, through ensuring greater support to staff and increased opportunities for ongoing professional development. And I am of course aware of the call for better pay, stronger support systems, and mentoring for new staff.

And as citizens of Aotearoa, we must hold hope, that every whanau has abundant potential to tap into, every whanau possesses the wisdom and legacy of those who have gone before them. Every whanau has the strength and talent to do it for themselves. The key to change lies with us all.

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