Through education we help organisations build stronger relationships with Māori.
The Wall Walk is now offered through Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington. Individuals and small groups can sign up for the next session on 5th May 2025.
The workshop is not a physical walk; it’s a room-based event, a walk through time and events. The walk invites new or deeper consideration about particular events, and their impact for Māori and for Aotearoa New Zealand.
It is engaging and informative, conducted within a very collaborative and supportive environment.
More info on The Wall Walk® can be found here
Through the knowledge gain or refresh, the walk invites participants – before, during and after – to think more about the impact of history on today’s social outcomes, and to think more about our role and effectiveness today, tomorrow and ahead.
Each attendee plays a small role in the walk, requiring a little bit of preparation (not much, and interesting stuff). All participants need to commit to doing the preparation, which is given two weeks before the workshop.
A recent user experience can be found here
My interest in racial equity and the history of bicultural relations in New Zealand stems from the time I spent as a child with my Nanny and our wider whānau.
When I went to University in the 1990s I probably puzzled the lecturers by including something to do with Māori in most of my projects.
For my PhD I collated statistics about Māori in the criminal justice system from the 1850s onwards and using what little history I could access (back then) to help explain some of the patterns. Sadly, Nanny didn’t live long enough to see me graduate with my doctorate.
Eventually, my personal and professional interests coincided and my pursuit of racial equity in the New Zealand criminal justice system began in earnest.
While working at Police, the (then) Deputy Commissioner Viv Rickard ‘voluntold’ me to lead one of his monthly sessions with District Commanders from across the country. The topic was Police’s operational target: reducing re-offending by Māori by 25%.
Under the influence of caffeine, I concocted the idea of an interactive timeline of key milestones in the history of Māori contact with the criminal justice system. This was my PhD (and related work) but in a user-friendly format. I decided to give the District Commanders topics in the timeline to research and present on the day – not a popular move!
Next, I took my eldest child into work with me on the weekend to create a visual timeline spread across 6 sheets of flipchart paper. It was supposed to be a covert history lesson – she spotted my motive a mile off. We made a mighty mess in Viv’s office.
D-day finally arrived – in 2017. The hand-drawn and sellotaped flipcharts went up along one wall. I started talking, moving back and forth along the wall as the story progressed. The Wall Walk had been born. Looking back, it was nowhere near as polished as it is now. Nonetheless, to my surprise, the District Leadership Teams started asking for it.
When Viv left Police to become a Deputy Chief Executive at the Ministry of Social Development, he asked me to run the Wall Walk with the Executive team there. By word of mouth, it continued to spread.
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