Kia ora mai tātou.
The Māori Library Whānau is made of a group of UC Māori Library staff who meet on a regular basis. Members of the rōpū are Nekerangi Paul, Rā Steer, Gabrielle Faith, Waitangi Teepa, Hugh Joughin, Te Paea Taiuru and myself. Matua Nekerangi holds a leadership role within the rōpū, and we are kindly aided by Ripeka Tamanui-Hurunui who is Kaiārahi Māori (Service Units) in the office of AVC Māori.
The Library Whānau meet:
- to provide professional and cultural support for Māori staff working in UC Libraries
- to ensure Māori have a voice that informs UC library policies and practices relating to the care of Māori material in our library and archives, and to the provision of library and information services
- to improve Māori customer access services and improve work place culture for Māori staff.
Our focus the last few months has been on editing and presenting Ngā Awa e Rua – the library bicultural strategy. Our latest hui was focused on how we are going to present our next Ngā Awa e Rua workshop (coming up this Tuesday 11 April) so that all library staff can learn about the strategy and we can all start feeling supported to implement it.
After each hui, a member from the whānau will post a brief memo here on Counterculture on behalf of the rōpū to let you all know what we have been up to.
Mauri ora!
Lisa – on behalf of te Whānau Māori.