Erin Thomas, Wren Mabin, Dani Pickering and Elli Yates formed what became Gathering at the Gate at the Social Movements, Resistance, and Social Change conference in Te Whanganui ā-Tara in November 2020. We had already met online through Tauiwi mō Matike Mai Aotearoa, as well as through attending anti-racism trainings with Turtle Island-based organisation White Awake. We thought that an Aotearoa-appropriate version of White Awake's foundational course "Before We Were White" would add significant richness and power to Pākehā capacity to rise up and support the realisation of tino rangatiratanga at a constitutional level by 2040, as envisioned by Matike Mai Aotearoa. We received blessings from White Awake director Eleanor Hancock as well as from Māori colleagues and kaumātua that, yes, this is a space that needs to be held here.
None of us are experts, though we bring knowledge from fields as diverse as education, law, history, language revitalisation, parenting, genealogy, activism, and facilitation. We are deeply committed to Tiriti-based anti-racism and are guided by a vision for our peoples as deeply-rooted, humble, long-term guests in Aotearoa with responsibilities as such. We are supported by a crowd of colleagues, comrades, and co-conspirators from around the motu who continue to help us develop the richness, depth, and diversity of what we are able to offer.
Four years on, Gathering at the Gate is an incorporated society (with charitable status pending). We have run three public-facing courses online, with a combined total of 115 participants. We have collaborated with the stunning and soulful Tīpuna Project. We have facilitated one bespoke course with a small organization and look forward to doing more things like this. And we are getting ready to welcome previous participants as co-facilitators into what is looking to be our largest public offering yet, coming up in January 2025!
Governance team:
Co-Chairs: Lillian Murray and Bop Murdoch
Secretary: Chloe Bisley-Wright
Treasurer: Dani Pickering
Committee Members: Kay Benseman, Vicki Culling, Rachel Liebert, and Elli Yates.
See our Constitution here, and latest AGM minutes here.
None of us are experts, though we bring knowledge from fields as diverse as education, law, history, language revitalisation, parenting, genealogy, activism, and facilitation. We are deeply committed to Tiriti-based anti-racism and are guided by a vision for our peoples as deeply-rooted, humble, long-term guests in Aotearoa with responsibilities as such. We are supported by a crowd of colleagues, comrades, and co-conspirators from around the motu who continue to help us develop the richness, depth, and diversity of what we are able to offer.
Four years on, Gathering at the Gate is an incorporated society (with charitable status pending). We have run three public-facing courses online, with a combined total of 115 participants. We have collaborated with the stunning and soulful Tīpuna Project. We have facilitated one bespoke course with a small organization and look forward to doing more things like this. And we are getting ready to welcome previous participants as co-facilitators into what is looking to be our largest public offering yet, coming up in January 2025!
Governance team:
Co-Chairs: Lillian Murray and Bop Murdoch
Secretary: Chloe Bisley-Wright
Treasurer: Dani Pickering
Committee Members: Kay Benseman, Vicki Culling, Rachel Liebert, and Elli Yates.
See our Constitution here, and latest AGM minutes here.