Te Awa Whakatipu (Dart River). Photographer: Alastair MacKenzie. unsplash.com
"In order for Pākehā in Aotearoa to understand their relationship to this whenua, they need to intimately understand their own whakapapa. This is the most basic tikanga of engagement in Te Ao Māori - that is, establishing relationships to one another through whakapapa. Understanding who you are, where you come from and how exactly you came to be here will not only give meaning to your relationship to this land but provides the fundamental basis for engagement with mana whenua and te Ao Māori."
- Sian Montgomery-Neutze (Ngai Tara/Muaūpoko), "Advice for non-Māori"
- Sian Montgomery-Neutze (Ngai Tara/Muaūpoko), "Advice for non-Māori"
Kia ora e hoa mā! Welcome to Gathering at the Gate - a kaupapa where we imagine ourselves as a group of settler descendants gathering before the waharoa, or gate, or threshold of a marae - the marae of Aotearoa. The year is 2040 and the bold and beautiful vision expressed in Matike Mai is coming to fruition: a constitutionalism based on values drawn from tikanga Māori, a conciliatory and consensual democracy, and a Tiriti-based belonging for everyone in this land. Like any group preparing to go on to a marae, we need to get organised. Who are we? Why have we come? Who is speaking for us; which are our waiata tautoko? Are our tūpuna present and accounted for? Have we got our koha sorted? Are we truly ready to meet?
Gathering at the Gate is about doing the background work that supports tauiwi Pākehā to get organised amongst ourselves in service of a Tiriti-honouring Aotearoa - not just in 2040, but every day. Alongside the critical analysis offered by the long-standing Te Tiriti education movement, we offer skills and practices for cultivating a deeply rooted political identity as one group of tāngata Tiriti amongst many by restoring relationships with ancestors, with lands and lifeways, and with a long lineage of creative resistance and collective power.
The karanga began long ago. Will you join us to answer the call?
Gathering at the Gate is about doing the background work that supports tauiwi Pākehā to get organised amongst ourselves in service of a Tiriti-honouring Aotearoa - not just in 2040, but every day. Alongside the critical analysis offered by the long-standing Te Tiriti education movement, we offer skills and practices for cultivating a deeply rooted political identity as one group of tāngata Tiriti amongst many by restoring relationships with ancestors, with lands and lifeways, and with a long lineage of creative resistance and collective power.
The karanga began long ago. Will you join us to answer the call?
gathering at the gate (gatg)
online course
Gathering at the Gate offers a 40-hour course spread over 8 weeks made up of evening and weekend online workshops and self-directed home study and practice. It is designed to help participants:
- Grow roots:
- Research family history through a critical, Te Tiriti-based lens.
- Recover an active relationship with ancestors as co-conspirators in reconciliation.
- Orient to Māori context, meet familiar landscapes in new ways, and discover a belonging based in reciprocity and relationship.
- Build a solid trunk:
- Strengthen your accountability muscles through group witnessing, truth-telling, and origin-story / positionality work.
- Expand your understanding of whiteness, including why and how racism (and other isms), fragility and cultural appropriation show up in our lives and what we can do to resist them.
- Explore the difficulties and possibilities of retrieving life-affirming ancestral traditions in service of culture & movement building.
- Spread branches, share fruit, cast seeds:
- Bring your whole body, heart, and creative powers to the work; generate gifts for those who come after you.
- Join together with peers, whānau, and wider circles of connection to collectivise the journey, go beyond 'othering,' and experience the transformative possibilities of radical kinship.
- Understand your personal stakes in social change, orient strengths and passions to this work, and sustain or renew your engagement in broad-based movements that aim to co-create a truly equitable, life-sustaining society.
who is this course for?
This course is open to anyone wanting to explore their European ancestry as it relates to increasing our collective capacity for showing up to movements that honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and He Whakaputanga. While we welcome those who identify or may be identified as Pākehā/NZ European/white/white-assimilated/white-facing, Gathering at the Gate is looking beyond Pākehātanga.
We acknowledge that race is a social construct, and there are people who may be white facing and/or with white skin privilege who come from Black, Indigenous, and/or other communities of colour who may wish to participate in this offering. If this is you, you are absolutely welcome. Please know your facilitators don’t carry this experience in their bodies, so won’t be able to speak to these complexities from personal experience. We will support you to connect with other participants who do share these experiences with you, so that you may witness, contribute and take deep care of yourself on this journey.
You don't need any prior knowledge of your family history, and adopted folks are more than welcome.
Still not sure, or have some other questions? Feel free to get in touch.
We acknowledge that race is a social construct, and there are people who may be white facing and/or with white skin privilege who come from Black, Indigenous, and/or other communities of colour who may wish to participate in this offering. If this is you, you are absolutely welcome. Please know your facilitators don’t carry this experience in their bodies, so won’t be able to speak to these complexities from personal experience. We will support you to connect with other participants who do share these experiences with you, so that you may witness, contribute and take deep care of yourself on this journey.
You don't need any prior knowledge of your family history, and adopted folks are more than welcome.
Still not sure, or have some other questions? Feel free to get in touch.