Tēnā rā tātou,
I te taha o tōku matua, ko Mataatua me Mahuhu ki te rangi me Ngātokimatawhaorua ngā waka. Ko Hokianga te moana. Ko Toko o te rangi te awa. Ko Kererū te roto. Ko Te Tii Maunganui me Tautoro ngā maunga. Ko NgāPuhi te iwi. Ko Ngāti Rēhia me Ngāti Moerewa me O’Reilly ngā hapū. Ko Tareha me Rahiri ngā tupuna rangatira. Ko Whitiora me Te Ringi ngā marae. Ko Matene me Parangi ngā ingoa whānau.
I te taha o tōku whaea, Ko Aerani me Koterana ngā whenua tupuna. Ko Kennedy te hapū. Ko Armiger me Feeney ngā ingoa whanau. Ko Bill Parangi rāua ko Angela Armiger ōku matua.
Ka puta mai ahau, ko Emma Parangi tōku ingoa. He kaiako ahau, he ākonga hoki ahau. E noho ana ahau i Onehunga, i Tāmaki Makaurau, i runga i te whenua tupuna o Ngāti Whātua. He kaiārahi ahau o ngā hapori ako o Our Kids ki Waitākere me Onehunga.
Kia Ora, my name is Emma Parangi. I am a teacher and a learner. I live in Onehunga on the ancestral lands of Ngāti Whātua. I am currently a leader in the Our Kids learning communities of Onehunga and Glen Eden.
I have 13 years teaching experience and have led the integration and expansion of Te Ao Māori in every one of my workplaces in that time. I am currently the Centre Manager for Our Kids Glen Eden and Onehunga. I have designed and taught professional development relating to te reo Māori me ōna tikanga, pūrākau (ancestral storytelling, oral transfer of knowledge), mātauranga tātai arorangi (Māori astronomical knowledge) and anti-bias training.
Throughout my haerenga, formal study has followed lived experience. I grew up in a tuakana role in my whānau, always being responsible for and caring for tamariki. I grew up disconnected from my taha Māori with little access to te reo, tikanga and mātauranga Māori. I have been an ākonga of te reo rangatira since I was 10 years old, and I expect to be on that journey of reclamation for my entire life.
In my undergraduate studies I focussed on linguistics and languages, including te reo Māori. I accepted a teaching position before deciding to undertake teacher’s training. After several years teaching I returned to study completing my post graduate diploma with a focus on indigenous research, leadership and language planning and policy. After several more years teaching both in Aotearoa and England, I returned to study again to complete my Master of Education. My thesis centred on cultural identity and its interaction with pedagogy and practice. I used Kaupapa Māori research methodology to explore my own lived experience as a Māori educator in a largely colonial education system.
A lifetime of walking between worlds as a mixed-race person in Aotearoa has made me the kaiako and leader I am today. I have fought as many indigenous people have to reconnect with my ancestral ways of being and knowing in a society of systems which were not made for me. My mahi as a Kaiako with tamariki, Kaiako and community centres whakawhanaungatanga and the values inherent within the building of relationships such as kotahitanga, aroha, manaakitanga, and tino rangatiratanga.
My goal in this mahi with ELP is the same as in any other mahi I undertake; to challenge and support Kaiako to understand their own identities deeply, so that they may create that same space for tamariki, whānau and hapori. The education system of Aotearoa is a partnership between tangata whenua and tangata tiriti. I will continue to work until that partnership is reflected in all educational spaces for tamariki and whanau Māori.
