I haere mai a Ahorangi Huia Tomlins-Jahnke ki Te Kunenga ki PÅ«rehuroa i te tau 1991, ki te whakaoti i tana tohu paetahi i te mÄtauranga. I te wÄ i whakatau ia kia noho mai, i ui ia i te pÄtai ki a ia anÅ:
"MÄ“nÄ kei te mahi ahau ki ngÄ wÄnanga, ka pÄ“hea e whai hua ai aku ake uri?"
I tana umanga tuatahi hei kaiako kura tuatahi i te tonga o TÄmaki Makaurau i nui ana wheako ki ngÄ Äputa o te mÄtauranga mÅ NgÄi MÄori me ngÄ uri nÅ Te Moana-nui a Kiwa – Ä, koia tÄ“tahi wÄhanga o tana whakautu:
"I whakaakona ahau kia whakapono ko ngÄ kaiako te pÅ«tahi o ngÄ mÄtauraga katoa, Ä, ko ngÄ tauira ngÄ kairiro. Heoi i makere tÄ“rÄ whakaaro i te wÄ i tÄ«mata ahau ki te whakaako i te tonga o TÄmakai Makaurau, i tÅ«taki ahau ki Ä“tahi tamariki i whakaatu mai i te ao o PoronÄ«hia, me ngÄ moutere o Te Moana-nui a Kiwa, he tamariki whai pÅ«kenga nÅ Å rÄtau ake whenua kÄore au i mÅhio. Waihoki, he reo rua rÄtau. Kotahi anake taku reo. I whai pÄnga nui ngÄ tamariki nei me Å rÄtau whÄnau ki ahau, i tipu i konei taku mÄtÄpono whakaako, ako hoki – i whakaako mai rÄtau i te uara o te mÄtauranga o ngÄ tamariki me Å rÄtau whÄnau i roto i te ao mÄtauranga me ngÄ kura ako."
Ko te mÄtÄpono nei ka noho hei tÅ«Äpapa mÅ te umanga o Ahorangi Tomlins-Jahnke. I tÅ« ia hei Ahorangi TÅ«hono i te MÄtauranga MÄori, iwi-taketake hoki i te tau 2006, ko ia hoki te Upoko o Te Uru MÄraurau i te tau 2011. Kua rangahaua whÄnuitia e ia ngÄ kaupapa pÄ“nei i te mÄtauranga whakawhitiwhiti kÅrero Ä-whÄnau, te mana wahine, te whakawhanake hoki i ngÄ hapÅ« me ngÄ iwi.
Kua whakamahi mai a Ahorangi Tomlins-Jahnke i ngÄ kitenga o ana rangahau ki te waihanga marautanga, tohu hoki mÄ ngÄ tauira i Te Kunenga ki PÅ«rehuroa. I te tau 1999, i tana kite ake ko ngÄ ritenga rangahau PÄkehÄ i whakaakona ki a ia kÄore i whakaae kia pÄtai ai ia i ngÄ pÄtai mÅ te iwi MÄori me Å rÄtau hapori, i whakawhanake ia i ngÄ marautanga tohu paetahi me te tohu paerua tuatahi mÅ ngÄ ritenga rangahau MÄori.
"Ko te anga rangahau o tauiwi ka whakangungu i a koe kia tawhiti ai koe i tÅ kaupapa, kia whai meka. Ko aku rangahautanga ki te whakawhanake i ngÄ iwi me ngÄ hapÅ«, hei tauira, i kÄ«ia he taupatupatu, Ä, i reira te pÅhÄ“hÄ“ kÄore ahau e titiro meka atu ki aku rangahau me aku tÄtaritanga. Heoi mÅ MÄori, ko te tikanga rangahau whÄnau, iwi, hapÅ« MÄori he rerekÄ“ – ko te Ähei, ko te mÅhio ki ngÄ horopaki rawa-tÅrangapÅ« kia taea ai te tÄtari motuhenga me te whakawÄ mÄ te tirohanga MÄori. I whakaaro ahau me mÄtua whakangungu i ngÄ tauira MÄori ki Ä“nei tukanga."
InÄ tata nei kua Ärahi ia i te whakawhanaketanga o Ä“tahi kaupapa whakaako kaiako, Ä, ko te kaupapa MÄori kei tÅna pÅ«take. Ko Te Aho TÄtairangi me Te Aho Paerewa ka whakarite i ngÄ tauira mÅ Å rÄtau umanga whakaako i ngÄ pÅ«naha Kura Kaupapa MÄori. I toko ake te whakaaro mÅ Ä“nei kaupapa ki a Ahorangi Tomlins-Jahnke i te wÄ i kÄ« tÄ“tahi tira kaiÄrahi kaiako kura me whakangungu anÅ i ngÄ kaiako nÅ ngÄ kura mÄtauranga o tauiwi – ko ngÄ akoranga o ngÄ tauira i Ä“nei tohu kÄore i hÄngai ki ngÄ Kura Kaupapa MÄori. Me whai wÄhi ki ngÄ tohu nei ko ngÄ mÄtauranga me ngÄ wheako o ngÄ kaiako Kura, me te mÄtÄpono o Te Aho Matua ka whÄia e rÄtau – nÄ tÄ“nei i mahi tahi a Ahorangi Tomlins-Jahnke me Te RÅ«nanga Nui o ngÄ Kura Kaupapa MÄori ki te whakawhanake, ki te waihanga ngÄtahi me te whakaako i te kaupapa.
"KÄore mÄtau i hiahia i tÄ“tahi kape MÄori o te kaupapa whakaako kaiako auraki – i te waihanga mÄtau i tÄ“tahi mea hou, tÄ“tahi mea whakatipu, Ä, me whai wÄhi ko ngÄ kÄmura o te pÅ«naha Kura Kaupapa MÄori."
Hei te tau 2022, ka whai a Ahorangi Tomlins-Jahnke i te karahipi Fullbright ki Amerika. Ka rangahau ia i ngÄ whakautu a ngÄ whare wÄnanga ki ngÄ wawata o ngÄ hapori iwi-taketake nÅ Amerika, ka whai wÄhi tonu Åna pÅ«kenga mÄtauranga ki te Äki i ngÄ panonitanga mÅ ngÄ iwi-taketake.
Professor Huia Tomlins-Jahnke came to ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵin 1991, to finish her Bachelor degree in Education. When she decided she was here to stay, she asked herself a question:
"If I’m going to work in tertiary education, how do I make that count for my own people?"
Her first career, as a primary school teacher in south Auckland, had given her plenty of opportunities to see where education wasn’t working for MÄori and Pacific children – and it had also suggested part of the answer:
"I’d been trained to believe that we teachers were the font of all knowledge and the children we taught were receptacles. But that notion fell apart when I started teaching in South Auckland, and met children who introduced me to their world of Polynesia and the islands of the Pacific, children who could do things from their homelands that I had no skills to do. And what’s more, they were bilingual. I was a monoglot.
These children and their whÄnau had a profound impact on me and shaped my philosophy of teaching and learning – they taught me to understand the value of the knowledge that children and their families bring to education and schooling."
This philosophy has underpinned Professor Tomlins-Jahnke’s academic career in education. She became Associate Professor of MÄori and Indigenous Education in 2006, and Head of Te Uru MÄraurau, the School of MÄori and Multicultural Education, in 2011. She has researched widely, on subjects from MÄori education to intra-whÄnau communication, to mana wÄhine [MÄori women’s discourses] and hapu and iwi development.
Professor Tomlins-Jahnke has drawn on the insights of this research to create innovative courses and qualifications for Massey’s students. In 1999, finding that the Western research methods she had been trained in couldn’t accommodate the questions she wanted to ask about Maori people and their communities, she developed the country’s first undergraduate and postgraduate courses in MÄori research methods.
"The Western model of research trains you to keep a distance from your subject, to maintain objectivity. A lot of my research into tribal and hapu development, for example, was considered a conflict of interest, and there was an assumption that I wouldn’t bring an objective view to my research and analysis.
But for MÄori, the tikanga, or ethicality of researching whÄnau, iwi and hapu is different – it’s about access, knowing the socio-political context so you can apply an authentic analysis and critique through a Maori lens. I thought it was important that Maori students in particular should be trained in these methods."
More recently, she has led the development of two teacher training programmes with transformative kaupapa MÄori aspirations at their core. Te Aho TÄtairangi and Te Aho Paerewa prepare students for careers as teachers in the Kura Kaupapa MÄori system of education.
The idea of co-constructing the programmes came to Professor Tomlins-Jahnke when a group of Kura headteachers told her that they had to retrain all the teachers who came to them from colleges of education – what students learned on their degrees wasn’t relevant in the MÄori-medium sector.
The new qualifications needed to incorporate the knowledge and experience of Kura educators and the Te Aho Matua philosophy they embraced – so Professor Tomlins-Jahnke partnered with Te Runanga Nui o ngÄ Kura Kaupapa MÄori to develop, co-construct and teach the programmes.
"We didn’t want a MÄori-language version of a mainstream teacher training programme – we were creating something new, something transformative and we needed the architects of the kura kaupapa MÄori system involved."
In 2022, Professor Tomlins-Jahnke will take up a Fulbright scholarship in the United States. Studying how universities respond to the aspirations of Native American communities, she’ll continue to make her scholarly expertise count in driving transformative change for indigenous people.
Read Professor Huia Tomlins-Jahnke's academic profile
Professor Huia Tomlins-Jahnke
NgÄti Kahungunu, NgÄti Toa Rangatira, NgÄi Tahu, NgÄti Hine
PhD, MEd, BEd
Professor of MÄori and Indigenous Education, Te Uru MÄraurau School of MÄori and Multicultural Education, Te PÅ«tahi-a-Toi, ManawatÅ« campus