The main thrust of this topic,
of this word mana, one word comes to mind.
It is self-worth, it is self-esteem.
And this comes forefront to me
when I'm thinking about mana, of my own mana, or the mana of my children
or my students or my partner or my friends and whānau
is when I'm interacting with them.
How am I impacting
or affecting their mana, their self-worth and their self-esteem?
It's really important to me that any engagements I have, any interactions
I have, that they are mana-enhancing. At the very least, they’re mana-maintaining.
But I really want to stay away from the mana, the takahi i te mana [diminish mana]
So that's how I understand mana-
as your self-worth, your self-esteem and your pride in yourself.
Ka pai. So I want to say too as a mother,
you know, and as a grandmother looking at my tamariki, mokopuna,
that mana is something that you're born with.
We all come into this world with mana.
And so it is about that dignity,
authority, self-esteem.
And so it's a precious taonga that then needs to be supported
and nurtured as a child or as anyone
continues to grow and track their pathway through life.
So for me personally, it's about, as I look around to those that I love
and that I spend time with and also those in my professional role too,
how do I actually engage with people,
as we were saying before, that is mana-enhancing, eh?
The role of the teacher in the classroom
is to encourage and support so that the mana of each child comes to the fore.
Do not belittle the child.
We should uplift their spirit.
It is possible if the child understands that the teacher has a good nature
and then the mana of the child will, in turn, be the same.
I would want our kaiako and our senior leadership,
you know, everyone who has influence and a position to play in our kura
to be really cognisant and aware of the mana
of the people that they are interacting with, whether
you know, right in front or the decisions that they make that are impacting on.
And so I can only tautoko the kōrero here which is, you know, each of my tamariki
and my rangatahi in my classroom have mana and I'm very aware of that.
So that means that does make me adapt
and be conscious of the words I use
and how we resolve conflicts and the decisions we make.
I’m considering how this is going to impact on the mana
of my students, of my sports team, of my kapa haka group,
of my department. And when I talk and when I explain things,
you know, making sure it's going like that, and not like that, and not talking down on anybody. So
let’s just remain aware that
what we say can either,
you know, be quite impactful on people's mana for good.
Just basic things,
like we talk about mana in a
classroom situation, just giving
little things to, for example,
if a manuhiri comes in
to your classroom asking one of your...
It is up to you to allow a child to greet the visitor.