The library leadership team would like to share a bit more detail about the Pacific Talanoa day scheduled on November 13.

Co-designed by the Pacific Development Team and library staff, the session is tailored for library staff. In the morning, we will learn more about the realities for Pacific peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand, with an opportunity for reflection and discussion on the significance of these realities in the library context. In the afternoon, we will learn more about the new Pacific Knowledge and Culture Hub at UC and how the Pacific Liaison Librarian roles work with this team, learn about success strategies for Pasifika students, and reflect on how what we’re doing in the library supports these strategies and develop an action place for next steps.

This talanoa is an important step in developing our cultural awareness and capacity to better support Pacific students and staff, a key strategic goal for the university and the library. We encourage everyone to attend, even if you have attended a talanoa day in the past, as developing cultural responsiveness often takes repeated engagement/experience to deepen understanding and strengthen our ability to incorporate it into our work.

The session runs from 9-4pm – if you don’t usually work these hours (or all of these hours) but would like to attend, please have a chat with your manager about options to timesheet extra hours or swap shift. There is also flexibility if people need to leave early for school pickups.

Please RSVP to the calendar invite sent from the shared Library Managers email on the 11 October – we’re using these registrations to inform planning for the day, as well as the catering for morning and afternoon tea😊