Testimonials

Ko te āwhinatanga mai te mahi a Tīmoti, kua hanga a mātou māramatanga i te paparahi tuhinga me whakaārahi a mātou kaupapa o te ao Māori ki roto i a mātou kāhui a MOTAT.
I auaha ia mā mātou hui ki te ngāwari a mātou whakamāramatanga i te māoritanga tūturu o ngā tuhinga.
Kua honohono me herehere a mātou ngākau ki ngā paparahi tuhinga a Tiriti o Waitangi me te He Whakaputanga hoki mai ngā pūrakau me ngā kōrero maumaharatanga a Tīmoti.
Kei te waimarie mātou me tāngata katoa rānei i te rongo ki tōna kōrero matatau me ōna pūmanawa. Kei te hiahia a Aotearoa ōna taonga kōrero i te wā nei i hanga te ao Māori i te katoa o tātou whenua.

Bailey Henare Turia, People & Culture Coordinator – Kaupapa Māori

We approached Empowering Change to support the MOTAT Team here in Tāmaki Makaurau as we embark on our journey into te ao Māori and te Tiriti o Waitangi. The beautiful incorporation of tāonga, pūrākau and story-telling wrapped around the history of Aotearoa made for a heart-felt session where we could all let down our walls and any preconceived ideas, and just tune in to new ways of understanding this Kaupapa. Positive feedback from participants came through in waves, many expressing an eagerness to learn more about how they can become more active treaty partners, in their personal and professional lives.
We will definitely work with Tīmoti and the team at Empowering Change in the future, in as many capacities as they are willing to work with us in. I couldn’t recommend them more highly.

Emma de Hoog, People & Culture Coordinator

From a Teacher’s Aide who attended:

“I just wanted to say “thanks” for including us in Timoti’s journey of discovery.
As one of the lost generations (of the reo and culture) and not having had the opportunity through previous learnings to be exposed to Te Tiriti O Waitangi I found today captivating, informative, humorous and inspirational 🥰 Now the real work starts in trying to take the next steps! Exciting though.

From a teacher who attended:

“Thanks so much for getting Timoti for the Professional Development today. He was awesome. Super valuable! A colleague has just left to collect shells and driftwood to repeat that activity with his class! ”

It was a great and an invaluable experience to have Timoti Harris facilitate our Te Tiriti o Waitangi Teacher Only Day on the 3rd February 2021. Timoti was really interesting to listen to, engaging, and inspired lots of great thinking/reflection in a really balanced and considered way. A great speaker, Timoti is clearly very knowledgeable and can engage even the most reluctant participant. I highly recommend Timoti as a presenter to deliver on this topic; one that’s often controversial due to a lack of understanding. Tēnā rawa atu koe, many thanks, Timoti!

“Timoti delivered a day long program which went beyond our expectations including the use of a massive array of taonga which he shared with us.
He hit the nail on the head with his approach and delivery of Te Tiriti o Waitangi; his narratives had everyone waiting for more and his use of a vast array of personal taonga was so humbling.
Timoti had the ability to enable us to dig deep and wide. He is an amazing kaikoorero and we will welcome him back to continue our journey with us”

“Our day of professional learning on Te Tiriti o Waitangi with Tīmoti was some of the best we’ve had.
Our whole staff came away fired up with new knowledge on the history of Aotearoa and ready to do better personally and professionally in living the principles and articles of Te Tiriti.
We are now really aware of ensuring that our kura and classrooms reflect the fact that we are in Aotearoa New Zealand.
I can now see and hear a concerted effort to normalise the use of te reo Māori and a desire to learn more.
Tīmoti’s content delivery was both entertaining and provocative. The use of the fabulous display of taonga was a beautiful accompaniment to Tīmoti’s kōrero.
Ngā mihi nui Tīmoti ki te kōrero me whakaaro o Te Tiriti o te Waitangi.”

“Being introduced to the work of Timoti has had a profound impact on myself as a leader and the colleagues whom I work with. Timoti has a special ability to connect with people and deliver powerful content. I rate Timoti and the quality of his work so highly that I have attended multiple sessions he has facilitated. He is organised, warm and incredibly knowledgeable. He knows how to read a crowd and modify presentations which are fit for purposes depending on the audience. Timoti has respectfully engaged us around important kaupapa and we now have a staff committed to doing things differently… and in the spirit of participation, protection and partnership!”

“I now have a desire to learn Te Reo. Healing process – understanding more of my history. Start of self-love of who I am. Sense of belonging. Created in a world that hated me, to a better understanding of who I am as Maori and appreciating the past, so that I can live for the future.”

Thank you for your presentation on Te Tiriti O Waitangi, it was
• inspirational
• hands on activities
• meaningful connections with the stories being told
• engaging for the audience

Our staff found the presentation both motivational and inspirational. How Timoti presents his workshops had staff engaged and in awe.

From this workshop it created a lot of questions from our teachers to help them with their planning for the year ahead; even the reluctant teacher was able to ask the gnarly questions for them to have a better understanding for themselves.

It has been pleasing to notice the shift of our teachers from what I have seen over the years teaching alongside them, for I believe that they did not understand Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the role it has in our education system, and one of the kōrero of knowing the stories about our marae in our rohe resonated for me so much so that this year’s teacher only day, before school started, was a visit to two of our local marae (both from where I am from) where staff got to hear all about these stories and also about Te Pou o Motai. There was so much enthusiasm and kōrero from our teachers and I can only attribute that to the workshop and understanding from Timoti’s presentations.”

Ko te haerenga o te mano maero..ka timata i tetahi taahiraa kotahi
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

“As an ACT for our local Kāhui Ako, it has been my pleasure to engage the services of Timoti. When looking at how we were to engage kaiako with developing culturally responsive pedagogies, we decided to start building a solid foundation around Te Tiriti o Waitangi, so all kaiako, tumuaki and kaiawhina had a better understanding of the effects of colonisation and our combined responsibilities of being active treaty partner. Every person attending these well scaffolded workshops have walked away with excitement, positivity and a commitment to keep evolving their practices both for themselves and their kura. All kura involved, mainstream and Kura Kaupapa Māori, expressed the value and knowledge that they gained from these workshops. Many kura have expressed an eagerness to continue with these workshops, in order to embed Te Tiriti in their kura and many more are waiting for the next time Timoti will be in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, so they too can become part of this journey building and enacting honest and active Tiriti partnerships.”

My school engaged with Timoti Harris in 2019 to deliver a Teacher-only Day programme relating to the Treaty of Waitangi. We had some initial conversations to elaborate on our requirements and Timoti was very helpful in this regard. He was able to help us clarify what we were wanting for our staff who are at a range of positions in both their teaching experience and their understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

On the Teacher-only day, Timoti delivered an engaging, inclusive and thought-provoking programme. He captivated our large group of 75 teachers and support staff for a total of 4.5 hours. He was able to cater for the wide range of people providing challenge in a respectful way to encourage us to become ‘active treaty partners’.

This was a very successful day and we gathered some very positive feedback. Many described this as their best PLD ever. A few of their comments are shown below:
Historical dates, events; loved all the ponderings; non-threatening, entertaining delivery through ‘stories’.

Very inspiring, uplifting, reflective and future-forward planning/thinking. Very informative – culturally responsive. Loved purakau and delivery. Whole session was very enjoyable – thought-provoking.

Ka pai, awesome speaker; low pressure environment. Gave a lot of reasons for the why and made us want to find out how ourselves.

We followed up this first session with another in the new year as one part of a multi-session day. Again Timoti was very open to working with us to plan the day and accommodate our wishes. This was another very successful learning occasion.

I fully endorse Timoti as an excellent presenter who will work with you to ensure that your requirements are well catered for. He can assist you to identify and plan your sessions and has an amazing kete of stories and taonga that engages people and reduces barriers.

Kia ora koutou katoa
Ko Matt Simeon toku ingoa
te tumuaki o Te Kura Tuatahi o Pillans Point
No Tauranga Moana ahau

Our kura has had the privilege of having Timoti work with us over the last 3 years to support our culturally responsive pedagogy.

The joy for me has been the way that he has supported our kaiako to embrace a Māori world view, helping them understand that things are not right nor wrong – they just come from a different world view.

Should you personally or as an organisation like to increase your capability, knowledge and understanding in kaupapa Maori, I would fully encourage you to speak to Timoti to shape a programme that will fit your situation.

I would be happy for anyone to call me to discuss further.

Ngā mihi nunui

As we embarked on an exciting new programme for our Leaders at Auckland War Memorial Museum named ‘Te Kahu Manahautu’, it became evident we needed someone with expertise and passion to partner with us on our Bi-cultural understanding and journey. We were introduced to Timoti Harris who immediately captured us with his immersion in both the English and Maori worlds. Timoti was quickly able to build strong rapport with our manager groups and individuals on our programme. He has earned the respect of all who were at different stages of their cultural journeys by being approachable, caring, sharing his wealth of knowledge, creating a safe place to learn and share, and being a true leader himself. Timoti has been a pleasure to work with and is highly organised and planned. He is humble and unassuming but has the gift of ‘weaving the people together’.

Timoti Harris is an exemplary professional development presenter. He has an ability to engage participants (of all ages) in high order thinking and meaningful dialogue while using easy-to-understand language. My observations would lead me to conclude that these skills and motivational techniques brings learners into the kaupapa, and beyond. Inevitably they take maximum appreciation from the content that is on offer. Of immense importance though is that he knows his subject matter intimately. Whether in a large conference theatre or a small class on a campus or in the workplace, the essence of sound content is sustained and therefore meaningful learning occurs.

The world has experienced tremendous change over the past two decades, and an authentically commensurate approach for the delivery of educational leadership is needed – one that moves in harmony with the new social direction. Timoti has the potential to shift people’s ideas and philosophies while maintaining calm and acceptable relationships at the local level. Cultural responsiveness is at the heart of his thinking and practice. By way of actions as well as words, he models the Treaty principles of partnership, protection, and participation.