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.
Emma is currently a Teaching Fellow at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland, alongside her role with ELP. She brings a broad range of experience and specialised knowledge to the ELP team. She has over 20 years teaching experience and has led the integration and expansion of Te Ao Māori in every one of her workplaces in that time. She has 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. Emma is currently teaching Te Ao Māori papers for student teachers in both the BTch ECE and Primary.
Throughout her haerenga, formal study has followed lived experience. She grew up in a tuakana role in her whānau, always being responsible for and caring for tamariki. She grew up disconnected from her taha Māori with little access to te reo, tikanga and mātauranga Māori. She has been an ākonga of te reo rangatira since she was 10 years old, and expects to be on that journey of reclamation for her entire life.
In her undergraduate studies Emma focussed on linguistics and languages, including te reo Māori. She accepted a teaching position before deciding to undertake teacher’s training. After several years teaching she returned to study completing her post graduate diploma with a focus on indigenous research, leadership and language planning and policy. She has recently completed her PhD study highlights the integral roles of wāhine taketake (Indigenous women of the Pacific Ocean) leading in mainstream ECE in Aotearoa.
After several more years teaching both in Aotearoa and England, Emma returned to study again to complete her Master of Education. Her thesis centred on cultural identity and its interaction with pedagogy and practice. She used Kaupapa Māori research methodology to explore her 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 Emma the kaiako and leader she is today. She has fought, as many indigenous people have, to reconnect with her ancestral ways of being and knowing in a society of systems which were not made for her. Her 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.
Emma’s goal with all mahi she undertakes is 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. She will continue to work until that partnership is reflected in all educational spaces for tamariki and whanau Māori.
