By creating emotional connections with Aotearoa’s history, The Wall Walk® workshop creates a space for people to better understand bi-cultural relations in this country.
“It’s not just statistics – you become part of the story through participating in the workshop,” says Diversity Works Chief Executive Maretha Smit.
The workshop, created and facilitated by Dr Simone Bull, explains New Zealand history in a way people can understand and enables them to see how structural inequities have developed, she says.
Part theatre, part study, part kōrero, this interactive half-day session is being held in Auckland on Tuesday, 8 August.
The workshop is not a physical walk; it’s a room-based event; a walk through time and events. It invites new or deeper consideration about particular events, and their impact for Māori and for Aotearoa New Zealand.
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 their role and effectiveness today, tomorrow, and ahead.
“It mobilises us to take action to address the inequities that have developed,” says Maretha.
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 prior to the session.
The workshop is engaging, informative and conducted within a collaborative and supportive environment.
There are limited places for the session which was originally scheduled as a pre-conference workshop at the Whiria Ngā Kaha Workplace Inclusion Aotearoa 2023 conference, which took place in Auckland last February.
"Bad weather events forced postponement of The Wall Walk but now we are delighted to be able to offer it to both conference delegates and anyone else who is interested in taking part," Maretha says.
