Leading educationalist Phoebe Davis has been appointed education manager for Te Rūnanga-Ā-Iwi-Ō-Ngāpuhi (TRAION).

Phoebe Davis (Ngāti Manu, Kohatutaka, Ngāpuhi, Te Whakatohea) has extensive experience in the education sector, as a teacher, curriculum developer and education manager. She currently serves on the Ministry of Education Approval and Allocation Panel and is one of the personnel behind the new history curriculum for all schools and kura that will become part of the national curriculum next year.

Phoebe was one of the lead facilitators for trialling Te Takanga o te Wā, the Māori medium New Zealand histories curriculum. She has been trialling the draft content in Tai Tokerau schools and in her new role will be working with and supporting hapū and iwi so they are prepared to tell their own histories.

Phoebe has been a member of TRAION’s Education Advisory Committee, which continues to do great work and is engaging with two deputies secretary of the Ministry of Education this month.

“We’ve got to make it work and do it well,” she says. “We have a rich history in the region. It identifies us. We have multiple stories, and they’re not all romantic either, there’s blood and guts … it’s our history, warts and all. So you get the curriculum and the context of your history. That’s how you get engagement and make a difference … it’s from the history of our people.”

Phoebe has always been driven to make a difference in the education sector. Over the years she’s been involved in indigenous curriculum design, Te Tiriti o Waitangi workshops for boards of trustees, teachers and communities, educational consulting and coaching, and technology and instructional design. Closer to her home and just as close to her heart, she’s been a strong contributor to progress hapū historic Treaty land claims.

In 2019 Phoebe was awarded a research fellowship at the international Kettering Foundation. “They were interested in New Zealand’s democracy and how we make decisions in our communities, iwi and tribes.”

Phoebe was one of six internationals who wrote and presented papers, and hers was about the contribution of Maōri women to Māori communities. “How women spoke with their hands, they kept the community together, elevating those women and their stories … and how their descendants today are leading the way. and are the future of our people”

A pōwhiri for Phoebe was held at TRAION at the end of June.