Thank you for the Te Tiriti o Waitangi workshop that you facilitated with through Lake Wanaka Tourism at the Community Hub. It was certainly one of the highlights of the year for me, with so much kind and generous wisdom imparted by you all. Thank you, thank you, thank you. My key take away points were; 1) Safe spaces are great, but it’s important to step into brave spaces too, 2) Understand my privilege. Tell my story, don’t shy away from the uncomfortable bits, 3) Understand what the partnership, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and its expectations meant (and continues to mean) for both parties, 4) When engaging, most of the people you’ll be sitting across the table from will have some form of inter-generational trauma. Engage none-the-less. Step up, be brave. Do so with honesty and good intent. Don’t expect a cuddle and 5) Be ready. Be ready to wait. Without exhausting Iwi’s limited human resources, what can this business, organisation, or community do to help? What is of real value to the other partner?

Danette is an extremely competent facilitator who is steeped in her cultural identity of Ngāi Tūhoe and Ngā Rauru and who also acknowledges her Scottish and Irish Tauiwi heritage. Danette is secure in who she is and it is in her tangata whenua and tangata tīriti mana tūpuna whakapapa that she stands, inspires and edifies others, being steadfast in her mana motuhake and tino rangatiratanga.
Danette draws on her lived experiences as a wahine Māori who was raised and educated in bi-cultural and mono-cultural settings. She has navigated through life obstacles and has succeeded, supported by a strong supportive whakapapa and kaupapa whānau. She has been, and still is, a role model to many rangatahi and wahine who are inspired by her mana wahine status, and I can attest to that as my personal experience.
Although domiciled away from her Papakāinga, Danette has formed and maintains strong manawhenua links with Ngāi Tahu through local rūnaka connections to Ngāi Tūāhuriri, Ngāti Wheke and Ngāti Huikai. These key relationships are important tūhonohono and offer permission for her to have her own mana motuhake on this whenua, not as a foreigner but as Ngā Mata Waka with a shared concern for tino rangatiratanga of all peoples who live in this rohe. It is my honour as manawhenua, an uri of Ngāi Tūāhuriri to endorse Danette and her mahi in this way.