Waipareira welcomes Chilean delegates for intercultural exchange

As International Indigenous Connectors, Te Wānanga o Aoteara (TWOA) are currently hosting a delegation from Chile that include educators and representatives from UN Women.

The cohort recently spent an afternoon visiting Whānau House learning about Waipareira’s impact of a By Māori, For Māori approach to our services.

It was an impactful afternoon full of kōrero, kai, waiata and exchanging of indigenous knowledge.

Luis Antonio Rosales Manquel, who is a Head Master at an Elementary School in Chile, shared what connects us as indigenious people.

“We are a people that have always been connected to water, sky and wind. That’s why we don’t seem like strangers because we are very much alike.”

For Dr Mario Carvajal Castillo, a Professor at Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano, he says that the experience will give them more resources to help indigenious groups in Latin America.

“We want to give a better life to our native people. As I once learnt from native people in Mexcio, 'to see, to think, to act' that’s how we want to take our learnings from today.”

The cohort are visiting as part of a cultural exchange that includes visits to Waitangi, University of Auckland, Auckland Museum and will end with an Indigenious Tertiary Education Symposium at TWOA.