Understand Me Kete
- A Digital Vā for Community Engagement -
"Sharp Eyes"
We “see” each other in storying
A young artist shared her visual story:
“One day I saw my nana in Vava’u, Tonga, weaving. I asked her “How do you do that?” She said, “You just use your sharp eyes”. “I now understand, I use my sharp eyes for everything I learn”.
By Penina Uasi at Papatoetoe North School (2020)
Understand Me poem: Stanza 1
Come, let us sit.
Nofo i lalo
And we can weave the threads of
our being, knowing and belonging
Le lalaga
The Whāriki (o le fala) of our collective stories
A Whāriki of places and people –
shared histories, of relationships, culture and identity
Over and under – under and over
Understand Me poem: Stanza 2
Children and families –
the threads enmeshed in the heart of the community.
What threads do we catch in our conversations?
A mother and son expressing their voice,
languages of knowing and
an openness to culture and dance.
Over and under – under and over
“One Story, One Song”
We all have stories within us.
Sometimes we hold them gingerly, sometimes desperately, sometimes as gently as an infant.
It is only by sharing our stories, by being strong enough to take a risk – both in the telling and in the asking –that we make it possible to know, recognize and understand each other.
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