Just saw yet another position that required in addition to the full job spec, fluency in te reo and expertise in tikanga. I’ve raised this before but have a couple new thoughts. Firstly, any job that tells Māori they need fluency to engage their people can get in the sea…

this is 100% the kind of framing that makes the more than 85% of non-reo speaking Māori lose confidence in engaging their culture in a prof capacity. Secondly, tikanga expertise is reserved for those raised to be tohunga in their whaānau, hapū, iwi…

no one expects people to be expert at being white. While Māori can be confident in our tikanga, claiming expertise is a next level life learning. If orgs want te reo and tikanga expertise, then advertise for that specifically. It’s a full time, highly specialised skill and…

should be recognised and remunerated as such. Stop expecting our workforce - who are on average paid less than their counterparts, to fulfill to roles by squeezing them into one.

*two