Introduction
Tēnā tātou! He uri tēnei nō Ngāi Te Rangi rāua ko Tainui hoki ki te taha o tōkū Pāpā. Nō Kai Tahu rāua ko Ingarani ahau hoki ki te taha o tōkū Māmā. Ko Saffron Stanley tōku ingoa.
I’m in my final year of studying Psychology and Criminology at Waipapa Taumata Rau (at the time of writing I’ve only got 6 weeks to go:’) ), and this summer I’ll be travelling to Santiago, Chile alongside 6 other tauira to study intercultural approaches for public health at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile!
I’m incredibly excited about this opportunity, but especially about exploring intercultural approaches and indigenous perspectives on health within a different country context. I believe we have much to gain from both our differences, and from what we share in common. It reminds me of the whakataukī – nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi – with your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive. I’m looking forward to gaining meaningful insights from this experience, and I hope to use them to help advance Māori mana motuhake both within the health sector, and beyond.
*I’ve also committed to learning as much Spanish as possible in the months before we depart… wish me luck.
¡Hasta luego!
-
As the unfamiliar becomes familiar
It has been a little over a week that we have been here in Santiago, Chile, and I can’t believe how much has changed already. Upon first arriving here, this city overwhelmed me. The heat made my head spin, the language barrier left me reeling, and the lack of proximity to any sort of natural…Continue…
-
Reckoning with Language
I’ve been thinking a lot about language recently. Whether it’s being taught innovative ways to string together Chilean slang words (no further details will be provided on this, for fear my blogging rights get revoked), trying to work out what someone is saying to me when I have an interaction with a local, or noting…Continue…
-
Negotiation and Reflection
It’s been a long week. Maybe the longest so far, but all for good reasons. As I try to make sense of the abundance of experiences, emotions, and relationalities that have been held within this week, the theme of negotiation is woven into many of them. The week started with lectures on Mapuche and Aymara…Continue…