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Boston City Council

 Kia ora, 

Firstly I am thankful to Councillor Tania Fernandes Anderson and Mayor Michelle Wu for the acknowledgement today at today's Boston City Council meeting. This blog post includes my address to the councillors. 

Will Flavell with Mayor Michelle Wu

Kei aku nui, kei aku rahi, e te ti, e te tā, tēnā koutou katoa. E ngā kaitiaki taketake o te takiwā nei a Massachusetts, mihi aroha atu ki a koutou e pupuri tonu ana ki te mana o tēnei whenua. E te koromatua o Boston, a Mayor Wu tēnā koe. Ka huri oku mihi maioha ki ngā kaikaunihera, tēnā koutou.  Firstly, I acknowledge the indigenous guardians of this land – their traditions, cultures, and languages. I acknowledge Mayor Wu, Councillor Anderson for the invitation, and the councillors here in the chambers this afternoon.


My name is Will Flavell. I am an indigenous educator, social justice and education advocate, researcher, and local Auckland City politician. My tribes are Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Maniapoto, and Ngāti Whatua. I am here in Boston, representing my indigenous communities, my home of West Auckland, and my country Aotearoa New Zealand. The last month has been difficult for people back home in New Zealand. Flooding has caused widespread devastation impacting the daily lives of many families and communities. As a result, people have died. Climate change is real and needs immediate resourcing to counterattack the effects of such devastation. This is important as New Zealand is an island nation with many coastal towns and cities.



I am here in Boston because I received a Fulbright Scholar Award for four months to understand the schooling experiences of indigenous young people in Massachusetts and whether they can see their language, culture, and identity feature in their schooling experiences. Interviewing young people and school visits – will give me a greater understanding of indigenous schooling experiences. As Māori – indigenous people of Aoteaora New Zealand, it’s an obligation for us that we support indigenous communities around the world – we have faced similar histories.

We have made steady progress back home. This year, teaching NZ history, including local indigenous stories, is now a core component of the New Zealand education curriculum. This will provide a more inclusive insight into all our histories – good and bad to children back home. People must know the past, in order to understand the present, and therefore face the future. Last year, we celebrated a new public holiday – Matariki – the cluster of Pleiades stars that signals the Māori new year. It is an important time of the year for us to honour our ancestors, celebrate the present by giving thanks, and plan for the year ahead. What is particularly special about this public holiday is that each year is a different day depending on the changing lunar calendar system.

I was first elected to Auckland Council in 2013. For the last ten years, I have straddled the life of a local politician with my role as an educator. During my time, we have seen the renaming of over 100 parks, reserves, and community centres with Māori names. This is in partnership with our local tribes; they are resourced to gift the community meaningful names that tell local stories. We now have announcements on our public transport systems (trains and buses) in the Māori language. This ensures that we increase the visibility of the language as a community language that is seen, heard, read and felt.

Diversity only exists when the voices of indigenous communities are active. There has been success in supporting our people's dreams and aspirations back home. This came with struggle over many decades with protests, marches, gatherings, and petitions – and yet, we still have a lot of work to do. Being at the decision-making table means ensuring that our decisions today will make it easier for future generations. Sometimes those decisions can be difficult, but it is a necessity. It has to be like that.

I will finish today with a Māori proverb – Mā te kimi, ka kite, mā te kite, ka mōhio, mā te mōhio, ka mārama. Seek and discover. Discover and know. Know and become enlightened.

Nō reira, huri noa i te whare nei, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Thank you very much. 



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