Transmission of skills and knowledge is a core message in dominant discourses surrounding early verbal and non-verbal communication of babies. Narrow conceptualisations fail to place adequate emphasis on sociocultural elements of language and children's sophisticated non-verbal communication. Utilising Kaupapa Māori research methods, this study describes a critical reflective narrative of a community-led parenting programme that makes space for whānau to re-centre Indigenous linguistic and cultural practices. 'He Awa Whiria/The Braided Rivers' metaphor is used to illustrate three themes derived from the analysis: Ma te kotahitanga e whai kaha ai mātau/In unity we have strength, reciprocity/whakaututu, whānau ki te whānau and manaakitanga/ love and compassion for others. Data sources included focus groups; interviews; and reflective researcher memos. The evolution of the collective-agentive approach is illustrated within each theme with selected critical episodes. This study describes the parent-coaches-researchers journey to illustrate how a community's rangatiratanga/sovereignty led to system transformation. The whānau collective journey represents an organic response of one 'targeted' community to lead the way in responding to deficit assumptions of parents and their children held by educators in the realm of early oral language. Indigeneous knowledge, ways of being and languaging are central and valid for the success of all tamariki/children.
The Pasifika Early Literacy Project supports teachers to make space for the languages and cultures of Pacific children and families in early childhood settings in Aotearoa New Zealand. Dual‐language books in five Pacific languages and English validate Pacific children's languages, literacies, and identities. We highlight teacher practices following professional learning and development workshops. Teachers are invited to challenge dominant monocultural notions of language and literacy that perpetuate educational inequities. Illustrations of early childhood teachers' innovations with Pacific children (aged 2–6 years) demonstrate how dual‐language texts can be connected to families' embodied cultural literacies. Understandings of “literacy” and “reading” were expanded to include children's expressive modalities through oral and visual texts in heritage languages and English. This work highlights the role of teachers to connect, rather than replace, the worldviews, languages, and literacies of families with the pedagogical practices of early childhood settings.
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