occurring and shaping the experience, largely through songs and movement games/dance. Contributing elements, such as these, from both children and Aunties, are what we do; we ritualise all our transitional times in our space, and our hīkoi are a transition out of our space, into the community, and back again. Ritual provides a consistent experience for the children to predict, anticipate and fully participate in. As well as making the ordinary extraordinary, ritual honours the needs of an individual and the group. So we, the Aunties, made some conscious and creative choices around developing more structure to the ritual to help us to be ready, as Kimberely Crisp would say, with "head, heart and hands". Firstly, we have an Aunty by the gate to 'hold space' with the children who are slowly gathering there. Due to the frequency of our hīkoi, the children are very familiar with what they need to fully participate; the footwear, warm layers, raincoats and hats, sunscreen and high-vis vests. Staying by the gate gives an Aunty the opportunity to tautoko the children with these things and to verbally remind children about what they need to do – for example, "kei hea tō pōtae?”, and, "Do you need a kope change?" This empowers the children to take responsibility to get themselves ready, and over time we have witnessed so many beautiful moments of manaakitanga as children offer their support to those who are finding it hard, or are maybe getting distracted. It is also important that an Aunty is there to support the children who aren't coming this time, and remind them that their turn will come another day. With a growing awareness of collective responsibility for our Learning Space whānau, the children are beginning to understand this and move off to play, or to stay and farewell the friends who are leaving. Charting the roll of children on each trip helps us to ensure everyone is getting an opportunity to participate, and the children are more familiar with this process now. The songs and movement games/dance I mentioned are used as invitations to gather and to bring focus to what is happening. This continues to the actual hīkoi where we alternate between two songs; one an echo song about who we are and the attributes and qualities we possess, and the other a song about us forming a train which incorporates all our names. Historically we used a harakeke plaited rope for the children to hold on to, with an Aunty standing at either end being the engine or caboose, while the children are the carriages. Lately we have been describing ourselves as a sandwich with the Aunties being the bread and the children being the various self-selected fillings in between us. Visual imagery is useful to give a frame for the safety aspects to hang from. Being outside of our space makes us visible in our community and crosses that border of potential isolation. For the most part at our space, children arrive in cars and are carried inside. How empowering to walk out all together on our hīkoi and for the children to locate themselves in their community. Moving out beyond the confines of our space extends the parameters of our individual and collective identities and broadens the opportunities for the children to develop their working theories and make sense of their world. The children know this because Protecting over 1500 childcare centres childproof.co.nz 0800 765 429 AJGNZ1341B December 2023 { 29 }
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