Testimonials and responses to the wero

I was lucky enough to have you take my group on a Wall Walk a couple of years ago. I’m an engagement specialist – helping people to understand the why behind things. Those 4 hours changed the way I saw Aotearoa, changed the way I voted, changed the way I thought about the place I called home. I encourage everyone who will listen to take that walk – it’s a game changer.

The content was so thorough and thought-provoking and an inspiring call to more learning and understanding. My feeling, as Pākeha, that it’s a genuine responsibility to keep making the effort to throw pebbles into the pool of ‘looking the other way’ and ignorance and misconception which I encounter across all of my social and professional groups at times, has been bolstered. I feel now, more than ever, that I want to work hard to be a good Tiriti partner, advocate and ally to Māori in the way I speak, think, act and vote. I have a list of further history exploration to pursue as a result of the Wall Walk – thank you. And my determination to keep on going with learning and using the reo has been boosted. Also, as an educator myself, I appreciate how much energy, commitment, concentration and preparation it takes to deliver a rich programme such as this. And you have the added emotional and spiritual weight to carry on top of that. So I just want to acknowledge your incredible mahi and say thank you for giving so much of your energy to this.

Just wanted to reach out and say thank you for an incredible experience learning more about Aotearoa’s history and providing a safe space to explore this together with my fellow colleagues. Your facilitation was exceptional, and the opportunity to pair this with staying at Te Poho O Rawiri Marae, and Sir Derek Lardelli made for a once in a lifetime experience.

While I didn’t get a chance to thank you in person I did want to reach out and acknowledge the insights you provide me with yesterday. I did feel a connection to the stories and events you described. I liked how you owned the space you live in – and found myself reflecting on how I can do this to. Had a great conversation with Mum and our kids (who are older children) about what I could remember from your workshop – it certainly struck a chord with them to. I’m committed to not letting this experience fade into ‘just another workshop’ – thanks for the kick start

Thank you for your time and the Wall Walk. This was a very powerful experience for me, it made me sad, hopeful, and angry all at the same time and these feeling have not lessened afterwards. I can only hope that more people will attend and that you are able to keep educating as many people as possibly about Aotearoa’s history. I asked my group what actions they were going to do afterwards and summarised they were:
• Talk to whānau / partner
• Use more Te Reo daily
• Raise children speaking Te Reo and educating about history
• Support colleagues to learn more, e.g.: pepeha, sign-up to Wall Walk, Te Reo classes
• Pay more attention to Māori/Crown relationship matters

I was so inspired, moved and saddened by your amazing teaching and story telling. Ngā mihi for all that you do and for sitting in the uncomfortableness to bring knowledge and hopefully humility and change. My promise is to speak te reo whenever I can.

Thank-you for an engaging session today. We had a debrief afterwards – which was great given the content. I have gone to other types of Te Tiriti training and this by far was the best. The other experiences I have had were very emotional and confronting especially being surrounded by non-Māori. Being intimately impacted and interwoven into the narrative can make such sessions very difficult. I have reflected on your session, and the difference for how I felt – and I think it is because of the prework alleviates any angst and all participants have done some research in certain spaces on the impacts of colonisation before they get into the room. My personal commitment is to speak more reo in all my spaces - not just when I am with people I feel comfortable with. Being early in my journey – it can be daunting speaking in front of others who are fluent. (It’s a me problem!)

We really appreciated you taking us through the session and sharing your knowledge with us. You captivated the team and kept everyone fully engaged throughout the session and beyond. The feedback from the team has been very positive. Even those of us that have done the session before, got a huge amount out of doing it a second time. We held a reflection session immediately after lunch and it stimulated some really good initial kōrero about our learning and what we can take away from the session to impact our practice.

I wanted to drop you a line to reiterate how powerful and moving we found the Wall Walk with you last week. You are a gifted and fantastic “teacher”. In my career, I have been part of a few workshops and programmes based on understanding Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the impact of our colonial history, but this is the best! As an organisation we are still at the beginning stages of our cultural safety journey and participating in the Wall Walk has given us a great foundation to go forward. There’s still a buzz around the office, with people talking about how much they got out of the day and how insightful and enlightening it was. We plan to keep the learnings alive and are working on how we incorporate the wero you gave us into our cultural safety programme of work. We will continue to reflect on the small part we can play to make sure that your 2040 poster shows positive change and demonstrates how as a Crown Agency we can live by and adhere to the articles and principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed your presentation and your wonderful humour. Our whānau have come away from your presentation with so much more matauranga about some of the significant events that have affected our Māori people. We were very grateful for all the wealth of knowledge that you were able to share with us today.

The two sessions were incredibly well received and have provoked a lot of reflection and discussion in our branch. I’ve been thrilled by some of the conversations that it’s kicked off and have loved hearing from branch members about how the sessions affected them (in a good way).

Absolutely loved it. It was profound. It was emotive and thought provoking yet from a Pakeha perspective I did not feel shamed nor did I feel personally attacked in any way. Afterwards I felt like crying which I did and it was cathartic and healing. I am well aware of my responsibility as a Nan and great Nan to learn so I can impart this message to my precious mokos. I believe that this teaching would be awesome as a night class and so essential in our schools – but hopefully this is changing and our history will be taught in full. Thank you again and well done on undertaking this wonderful piece of work.

The presentation was really insightful and left me with a lot to think about. It encouraged me to learn more about my own story and whakapapa.

For the research presentation, I learnt about the history of the Haka party and casual racism in NZ. I flew back to Auckland today and met a very friendly man on the plane. We exchanged our stories the whole flight and it seemed like the was universe aligning when he mentioned he was [part] of Te Matatini! Your workshop is something that I will carry with me for the rest of my journey. Thank you for the foundations you have laid for not just me and my whānau now, but for my future generations.

This has to be one of the best workshops I have ever attended and at my ripe old age I've been to few. I'm grateful for your passion and the story you shared.

I mean thanks doesn’t do it justice. A safe space to empower & challenge us to know better, do better, be better. And special thanks for the encouragement to speak Te Reo and that the pronunciation will follow.

My sincere thanks for your session with us yesterday. I have studied New Zealand history (both in history papers and in law papers) and yet found that most of what you taught us yesterday was wholly new information to me, which I think demonstrates some of your points yesterday. Your style of presenting is also fantastic – it cannot be easy to take such heavy, often very dark, material and make it easy to absorb and entertaining. The things you taught me yesterday will stay with me for some time, and I am working to incorporate this new knowledge into my work and home life.

I’ve had a lot of feedback this afternoon from people saying how good they found the wall walk this morning, and asking me to pass on their regards to you. Special feedback from a self-confessed introvert is below. Thank you for organising such a fantastic event, and Simone was brilliant! I went to a private Christian school in Tauranga in the 90s and early 2000s. The New Zealand history I got was basically that “white people turned up, there were a few wee scuffles with Maori such as the land wars uncomfortable cough but then Maori issues just kind of disappeared and now New Zealand is one of the best countries in the world, apart from those pesky Maoris who commit all these crimes. Aren’t we lucky!?” I cringe at that now.

Thankfully since then, I’ve become somewhat better informed. Even so, I only heard of Parihaka a couple of years ago, and I’d certainly never heard of Nga Tamatoa or was aware of the endless list of subtly (and sometimes overtly) racist legislation. The comment about the difference between knowledge and acknowledgement really resonated with me. The session has given me a much more balanced perspective of New Zealand history and the underlying causes of Maori pain and inequity, although of course, I can never fully understand. I loved learning about the resistance and the uprisings, and now I understand that the strengthening voices of Maori today are part of a long history of fighting for their rights as a Treaty partner. I hope we can arrive at true partnership and equity someday, and I will do what I can to support that outcome. I also hope you run another Wall Walk. I think it’s critical knowledge for all New Zealanders, but particularly for public servants.

Thank you again for such an amazing session and for carrying the voice of so many who didn’t have one when it was needed. The feedback I have received has been phenomenal! People keep stopping me to tell me how perfect it was and how amazed they are by your performance! A lot of us are ex facilitators – so we know what that sort of work takes and how much knowledge you need to be able to do what you do and how you do it!

I visually saw my own whakapapa on the wall after never being able to meet my maternal grandparents (both deceased) and rely on stories handed down. Thank you for a thought-provoking and enlightening experience in the short amount of time allocated!

Thank you so much for taking the time to take us through the Wall Walk yesterday. It was a fascinating morning and everyone is still talking about how interesting and insightful it was. The method of asking different people to present on the topics worked really well and stretched our team, many of whom are not used to presenting to groups. However, everyone agreed that by participating they learned a lot more. I also really liked the way you personalised the morning, with stories from your family, which showed just how recent the history and changes were. So again, many, many thanks – we really appreciate your time and enthusiasm – we all learned a lot and can now more fully appreciate the work needed.

I just wanted to thank you for our experience of the Wall Walk on Tuesday. I have found myself reflecting a lot on the day, and this morning when I heard that the Rua Kenana Pardon Bill had passed I was pleased to have a better understanding of what that means. It was a great morning, the time flew and I learnt a lot (mostly about how little I know!).

I think the Wall Walk is such an awesome initiative, and I’m inspired by Sim’s passionate presentation. I really enjoyed this morning’s session, and I learned a lot about New Zealand history today.

I appreciated you and the mahi you do. I wanted to reiterate the impact of the workshop on our whānau – it was an eye opener, but in a safe and relaxed, but not too relaxed kind of way, didn’t know the extent of this history, loads of learnings, greater understanding, great delivery … were some of the comments that were made. This is the mahi that we need to affect change in our organisations, so I thank you again for a great workshop.

Thanks again for such a dynamic, powerful presentation; to me, in parts, very spiritual and solemn. The kōrero and feedback has been fabulous. Of course meeting you in person was a highlight, as my nature has always been “for the people”. I pray that we will cross paths again.

Thanks so much again Sim, and for your enlightening journey yesterday – there’s been so much to process I’ve been thinking about it pretty much non-stop since then. I wish I’d known all of this so many years earlier but am grateful for the opportunity to have learned it now at least!

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the profound affect that yesterday’s Wall Walk session had on me. I have reflected deeply since the session as I experienced a number of emotions during the time we had together; from guilt (being a first-generation NZ with my parents from the UK) to anger (how did we as a country let these things happen?), to frustration (how could I be so naive about our history) to sadness (how did we allow young people in care to be taken advantage of and be abused?), to enlightened (I now know), to interested (I want to know more). Sim, I thoroughly enjoyed your facilitation style as you are engaging, challenging, thought provoking and empathetic presenter. I enjoyed observing you (from a facilitators point of view) on how you captured the audience through storytelling, getting us to do some of the mahi and your use of humour. The work you are doing is so valuable in helping NZ be a more open, tolerating, and caring country. Thank you.

I would like to thank you for your amazing presentation you did, you made it easy for me.
Your presentation helped me a lot to acknowledge Māori history and culture throughout years.
Also distributing tasks to us contributed on focusing on different topics and understanding the rest of the history throughout others' presentation.

Thank you & wish you all the best.

Words fail me in saying thank you to YOU for the amazing awareness in the work which you so generously share. I found today’s course to be informative, engaging, authentic, and most importantly, heartfelt.

Wishing you and your whānau only the best.

Tēnā koe e te wahine toa nō Ngāti Porou,

Faaaabulous day yesterday. Love your work. So cool to finally see you in action and see the team embrace and react as they did. (pleased I made you laugh with my pompous Englishman impersonation 😊)

A good vibe brought back into the Office including a tentative commitment from the CE to have the rest of the ELT go through the journey at some point.

Tēnā koe Simone,

I thought this morning with you was as good as it gets on so many levels.
I have been to a lot of educational activities in my 30 years as an anaesthetist and educator. This was the best. My te au Māori learning has been late in life and it is very exciting and humbling as a Pākehā who grew up in Timaru. Thank you for adding to my journey.

Please keep up this important mahi.

We have received a lot of positive feedback after yesterday’s workshop. I wanted to pass this one on and let you know that one of our Māori staff, who was adopted as a child to a pākeha family, intends on applying to do a Māori and Indigenous Studies at Uni “to learn about who he is” – as a result of your kōrero with us. We are truly very grateful for your mahi

Ngā mihi Sim & whānau

Talofa Lava Sim

I just wanted to reach out and say a huge THANK YOU for today. Myself and others really appreciated the learnings and story telling you depicted of our history.

Much Alofa, Fa’afetai Tele Lava.

I wanted to send you a quick email to say how much I enjoyed the Wall Walk. It really gave me a chance to learn and understand so much about our history that previously, being Pakeha I have felt I had no right to. The way it was delivered and the way you both wove your own personal connections in to the story really took it to the next level and you could definitely tell how passionate you both were.

I think one of the most powerful things I took away was the statement you made at the end. This next page is empty, what are you going to do with it? That just really got me. So I wanted to say a massive thank you from me, it was incredible, in fact I would have loved to have spent longer in that space.