Students from across the network arrive in Dunedin for the inaugural Matariki Indigenous Mobility Programme

1 July 2016

Matariki Indigenous Peoples’ Programme participants welcomed at Otakou Marae

The inaugural Matariki Indigenous Mobility Programme is now well underway, safely reaching day five of its twelve day schedule.  Hosted by staff and students at the University of Otago, New Zealand, together with local Maori communities, the programme includes participants from The University of Western Australia, Queen’s University, Durham University, and Dartmouth College.

So far the programme has included a Powhiri (welcome) from Manawhenua (local people) at their Otakou Marae; visits to a local Albatross Colony and Interpretative Centre and Dunedin city museums; and presentations on strategic language development, environmental protection and community land management, cultural health and well being, and Treaty law (Te Titiri o Waitangi).  There have been many highlights in the community-based education programme so far, most significantly in the way students are working together to cooperatively exchange both common and different ways of Indigenous knowing, being and doing.