AILI Archives - Kurahautū

Learning happens through a matrix of relations

Rev. Blythe Cody — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 21:05:46 +0000

Over 50 scholars and clergy ended three days of deep reflection, relationship, intention and action with closing words from Archbishop Don Tamihere and a Eucharist led by visiting Archbishops Chris Harper and Marinez Bassotto.
“Learning happens through a matrix of relations.” This was the observation of Hong Kong-born, US-based theologian Dr Kwok Pui Lan, at the close of the first day of the Anglican Indigenous Leadership Initiative (AILI).
Arriving that afternoon as strangers, from indigenous cultures that have little contact with one another, delegates taking part in the AILI departed on Wednesday the 27th September as friends, colleagues and kin, each one with fresh knowledge and understanding to take home to their respective nations.
During the mihi on that first day, leaders had been asked to share their whakapapa (genealogy), their background, a view on leadership and a food that reminded them of home. Answers were both familiar – banana loaf, chicken curry, kamokamo, rewena – and more foreign. Acai berries, collard greens, hot buttered popcorn and moose steak all featured from those who had travelled the furthest.
Archbishop Tamihere says spending time getting to know one another during this special introductory afternoon set the tone for the AILI and its ultimate success. “Methodology is as effective as outcomes,” he says. “There is no journal, no book on what it means to be an Anglican leader in light of indigeneity. We are writing it, now, through wananga – and building relationships is the first step we take.”
The final morning began with workshopping three important aspects of leadership as they pertain to indigeneity and Anglicanism.
Dr Jenny Te Paa-Daniel (Ōtepoti) led a group discussing theological education, and how it could be reshaped in a “redemptive solution” to the current situation, which is, in some cases, a traumatising experience for indigenous scholars.
It was suggested that a kaitiaki group establish to ensure priorities are identified, met and regularly reviewed – these could include an audit of the current education landscape (everything from informal bible study to theological qualifications), identification of training opportunities required, leading cross-sector collaboration, and removing whakamā (shame/stigma) and elitism from educational opportunities. “We want to guarantee success, so that our scholars take their rightful place within the academies of the world,” concluded Dr TePaa-Daniel.
Archdeacon Susan Wallace (Te Waipounamu) reported back on her group’s interrogation of governance and structure, mooting a local coalition, seeded by those attending AILI, that would meet annually. “Through collective self-determination, we would work towards a transformation of institutions. We might offer indigenous governance training and intentional mentorship, opening our arms to other indigenous people within our Communion and across the world.”
Simon Heath and Vianney Douglas spoke of transforming kura, the possibility of creating an indigenous curriculum “and bringing in both educationalists and students to understand, what are the underlying values? What is the graduate profile, what are our children’s hopes on graduation? Investing in them now means they can be the focused leaders we hope for.”
Closing remarks from Archbishop Tamihere suggested leaving the wānanga having reframed what it means to be indigenous, to be colonised, to be controlled. “These are words that relate to negativity. What if we decide to develop a pedagogy of the free? Then, our theology would not speak of being oppressed, imprisoned, subjugated. What would that look like?”
“Here, you’ve become the founding establishment of a global wānanga of loving people. Thank you for being here and spending time and sharing.
“The one connecting thread that draws us together is friendship. Whanaungatanga, mātaraunga, indigeneity, and the idea of kaitiakitanga. It’s all been slowly forming, here, as in Mark chapter 4. Jesus tells us to scatter good ideas. Some will land on paths and not take root, some will land on brambles and suffocate, some will be stolen away by the birds of the air, but some will fall on good soil. We trust in that process, and it’s been deeply inspiring to observe that.”
The three-day wānanga concluded with the Eucharist, and Archbishop Chris Harper’s sermon urging delegates to take their messages, developed at the wānanga, to the world. “We have been very blessed to be able to gather under one roof, in one house for a short while. To share our commonalities, our prayers, our voice and our song. At the very beginning, I offered this message: that we all have one song, a song that all of us sing with one voice. And that is our life experience.
“You are the ambassador. The Almighty blesses you and has given you these gifts, these words, these steps and this moment.”

Image: Archbishop Marinez Bassotto. Photo Credit:Julanne Clark, Anglican Taonga.

The post Learning happens through a matrix of relations appeared first on Kurahautū.

AILI: Where Anglicanism meets Indigenous Knowledge

Hirini Kaa — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 21:28:28 +0000

The inaugural Anglican Indigenous Leadership Initiative got off to a rousing start as activities commenced with a pōwhiri at Te Aute College.

Months of planning came to fruition on Monday 25th September as Anglican leaders from several countries around the Pacific Rim converged in Hawke’s Bay for a week of sharing ideas, learning and kinship.

To set the tone for the summit, participants gathered at the college’s wharenui (ancestral house) to be welcomed with a pōwhiri (welcoming ceremony) including karanga, whaikōrero, waiata and kai.

Established in 1854, the Māori Anglican boys’ college is steeped in the traditions of both the Anglican Church and mātauranga Māori (ways of knowing) – thus an appropriate location to open the event. This duality of faith and culture is felt most keenly in the school’s whare wananga (house of deep learning). And it’s this location, and our country of Aotearoa New Zealand, that was chosen intentionally as a place that would inspire, support and cement the overall kaupapa of the AILI, according to Primate and Pīhopa o Aotearoa, Archbishop Don Tamihere.

“We have always wanted to gather here, in Aotearoa, as we feel like there is something about Māori culture that has value and message for other indigenous people” he said on Monday. “We’ve found an infrastructure that works to both protect our identity and survive in a colonised space.”

As is custom at a pōwhiri, local representatives welcomed participants to the whenua, with Ngāti Kahungunu kaumatua Jerry Hapuku, a Bishop of the Mormon Church, emphasising that although the group may have several differences, and speak many different languages, they are united in the love of the same God.

On behalf of the visitors, National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop of Canada, Chris Harper, voiced the sentiment of participants saying; “We come humbled, to stand in solidarity with all, so that our voices can show the world that the Creator can bring us together for one cause, one strength, one voice, one song.”

Following the theme, Primate of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia – Sione Uluilakepa – spoke of the mana (spiritual power) and connection shared between members of his congregation and those in New Zealand, before leading attendees from the Polynesian community in a beautiful roof-raising hymn.

Then, Archbishop Tamihere explained to guests that aswith many indigenous people, Māori traditions tend to be oral. The whare wananga, he went on, is a deeply systemised way of capturing Māori knowledge and philosophy, passing it on over many centuries and generations.

As a function of oral tradition, Māori have encoded deep meaning and understandings into the carvings, patterns and symbols within the whare wananga, he explained, as a way of camouflaging the learnings from those who do not prize them, while at the same time revealing them to those that do.

After discovering the meanings hidden within the walls of the whare wananga, many of attendees found their ancestors represented somewhere within the room – reinforcing the kaupapa of kinship.

Emphasising the importance of intellectual concepts and the quest for knowledge within Māori culture, Archbishop Tamihere shared the story told by the 12 pou that line the walls, explaining “when you enter the whare wananga, you start with intellectual development and then go on a journey with the end result that you flourish spiritually. So, while we are actively trying to develop your mind, we are really trying to enable your spirit.

“This is the brilliance of our ancestors.”

Finally, acknowledging that indigenous people haven’t always thrived in the hierarchical, structured type of gathering that is common within the church, Archbishop Tamihere encouraged participants to “lean into their cultures to find new ways of understanding, and new ways of being that might help indigenous people to flourish in a way that traditional structures have not achieved thus far.”

AILI continues this week in Hastings.

The post AILI: Where Anglicanism meets Indigenous Knowledge appeared first on Kurahautū.

Esteemed guests gather for inaugural Anglican Indigenous Leadership Initiative Wānanga

Hirini Kaa — Sat, 23 Sep 2023 21:10:47 +0000

As Anglican leaders from across the world begin to gather in Te Matau a Maui in Aotearoa, organisers of the first Anglican Indigenous Leadership Initiative (AILI) are invigorated by the prospect of deep discussion and kinship.

AILI runs over three days, attracting participants from the Pacific Rim, including the prairies of Canada, and the Amazonian rain forest. It begins with a pōwhiri at Te Aute College, south of Hastings, on Monday September 25^th, and concludes with a Communion Service on Sunday 1^st October.

Hosted by Primate and Pīhopa o Aotearoa, Archbishop Don Tamihere, the summit takes a wānanga approach to gathering and learning, and is less structured and formal than the conferences some of the manuwhiri will have attended in the past. Kōrerorero is interspersed with karakia, waiata, and kai, as guests discover differences, commonalities – and whakawhanaungatanga (one family bound in love) is created in faith.

“We’re aiming through the wānanga to give as many opportunities as we can for people to be heard, to share, and to learn. It’s an indigenous approach to draw out knowledge from one another, as opposed to a Western style with keynotes and speakers,” explains Archbishop Tamihere.

Visitors to our shores for the initiative include Professor Kwok Pui Lan, a leading US-based academic with expertise in post-colonial feminist theology, and Brazilian Archbishop Marinez Bassotto – one of only a handful of female primates worldwide. “She is known to spend days paddling through the waterways of the Amazon to access her congregation.”

Dr Jenny Te Paa Daniel (Te Rarawa) joins from the University of Otago, the first indigenous lay woman appointed to lead an Anglican seminary anywhere in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

“With so many brilliant indigenous leaders in the room, we plan to use our time together to lay a theological and intellectual foundation for the next several years,” Archbishop Tamihere continues. “That could involve any number of things – from mentoring programs for women leaders, to a network of scholars, to establishing a bishops’ conference. Our overarching goal is to gain an understanding of leadership from an Anglican indigenous perspective – one that is inclusive of many voices and worldviews. There are plenty of textbooks that tell us what Anglicanism is, but we’re trying to find a new way to express an indigenous perspective on our faith.”

Material available to guests ahead of the conference, intended to stimulate thinking and ignite discussion, focus on three areas of leadership: renegotiating knowledge, transforming structures and reconciling schooling. “They cover topics such as the shared grief of our colonisation experience through to the immense potential that indigenous worldviews bring to God’s creation,” says Archbishop Tamihere.

Much of the wānanga will be recorded, in either written or video form, in order to document and preserve these important discussions.

“We’re looking forward to a gathering that will take all shapes and all forms,” concludes Archbishop Tamihere, “and trust that the work of the Holy Spirit will guide us.”

AILI Wānanga is being hosted by Kurahautū, the Archbishops’ Wayfinder Unit. Find us at https://kurahautu.org/

The AILI Logo – designed by a young Māori artist – represents both weaving traditions and the opening of a basket which alludes to sharing of resources, ideas, and inspiration

The post Esteemed guests gather for inaugural Anglican Indigenous Leadership Initiative Wānanga appeared first on Kurahautū.