Tēnā koutou katoa, 

Ko Loren tōku ingoa 
Nō Wíwí ahau 
Kei Whakatū au e noho ana 
E ai ki te whakatauki “Whiria te tāngata“ 

My name is Loren, and although I am French, I have been calling Whakatu Nelson home for almost four years. And this kaupapa, is one of the main reasons why I am still here. I started working on it in 2018, 4 months after arriving in New Zealand from France. Everything was fresh and new and the divide and wound between māori and pākehā quickly became tangible to my eyes. So I thought, naively, that perhaps there was something to be done, on my level, with my sensitivity and awareness. I believe I have an important role to play today as pakeha when it comes to decolonisation. Because I am conscious of the privileges I still have; so I want to use them as a springboard for bringing about change. 

So I decided to learn about Te Ao Māori, about Aotearoa’s history, reading books, having kōrero, around these topics, and meeting people from the local iwi. I also enrolled for an ethnology degree with the university of Strasbourg in France, as I felt I needed more tools in my kete. And not long after that, I met the first wahine who would later feature in the exhibition, Cindy Te Ata. I remember so vividly the day her and I sat down for our interview. 4 hours of memories, emotions and vulnerability. I came home, feeling more grounded and aligned than ever before, with a deep sense of certainty that THIS is what I wanted to put my mauri and skills into. I wanted to create a safe space for wāhine Māori to share their stories, their experiences and perspectives, and most of all I wanted all of us to come, pause for a few minutes, and listen to them. 

The kaupapa has since taken me on a journey, of deep learning, vulnerability, deconstruction, of making mistakes and learning from them. I want to follow your leadership and guidance, and hope that I will have the honour to receive your trust. 

Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou. 
Loren

Link to my TEDx Talk - The art of cross-cultural relationships