Robyn Corrigan
Of Ngati Kahu descent, Robyn’s thirty year career in the social services sector has incorporated practice in the statutory, health, education, NGO and Iwi/Maori sectors at front-line, management, leadership and Governance levels.
Robyn was the inaugural Chair of the New Zealand Social Workers Registration Board (SWRB), is a past-President of the Aotearoa NZ Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) and a Kahui member of the Tangata Whenua Social Workers Association (TWSWA).
Her interest in indigenous social work practice has taken Robyn to explore practice with Canadian First Nations people, Australian Aboriginal practitioners and Native American agencies.
Robyn spent five years as a Lecturer at the Centre for Social Work at what is now the University of Auckland. Recently retired, Robyn was most recently employed as the Professional Practice Leader at a large non-Government Organisation, responsible for supporting Managers to ensure the best practice of over 100 social workers and counsellors.
June Edwards
Tēnā koutou kātoa, he uri tenei no nga iwi o Ngāti Porou, Te Wakatohea me Ngai Tuhoe.
I am a registered social worker and have been a Kahui member of TWSWA since 2014 and have practiced within the social service sector for 15 plus years.
My journey has seen me through various responsibilities supporting whanau and their children as a front-line social worker and supporting staff to ensure practice responsibilities and accountabilities are maintained at leadership and management levels.
My current employment with Presbyterian Support Northern Family Works has been since 2004. I started as a Social Worker in Schools (SWiS) for Te Hononga, which was then based in Manukau, Auckland.
I was privileged to have an opportunity to experience a 12month interim Team Leader role within the Auckland region for 12 Social Workers in Schools, where responsibilities included supervision and the pursuit of best practice. With the continued growth of the SWiS sector within PSN Family Works Northern the restructure of the Team Leader role provided me with the opportunity to take up my current role as the SWiS Practice Leader for 64 SWiS, which I have occupied for 9 years.
Sonia Hibbs
I live and work as a social worker in South Auckland.
Social work interests are Indigenous spirituality, decolonisation pathways and opportunities for healing.
Lisa King
Lisa has 30 years community and social work experience including the provision of supervision, practice development and the facilitation of wānanga and education. She has worked in private practice, iwi/Māori, community and government services. She is a lecturer on the Bachelor in Social Work programme at the Open Polytechnic. Her research and practice interests is the development and ‘teaching’ of indigenous knowledges and practices, decolonising social work, development of authentic Tiriti o Waitangi based relationships, Māori mana motuhake and tino rangatiratanga. She is a member of Tangata Whenua Social Workers Association (TWSWA), Tangata Whenua Voices in Social Work (TWVSW) and Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW). Lisa is a registered social worker, a recent past board member of the Social Workers Registration Board where she was also chair of the board sub-committee, Te Kōmiti Māori.
She has been an active governance member for her marae including land-claim and runanga representative, as well as for a Māori Women’s Refuge and a whānau ora collective. She is a current board member for an iwi social and health service in Muriwhenua, where she resides.
Her ahikaa connections are to Ngāti Te Aukiwa (Taemaro) and Ngāti Kōhua (Mātaitai), with wider whakapapa ties.
Miriama Scott
Tēnā koutou e ngā rangatira, ngā tangata whenua o te Ao.
Greetings all distinguished indigenous peoples of the World.
I am of Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne descent through our mother and Scottish and English descent through our father. Ngāti Kahungunu is one of the largest tribes located on the east coast of Aotearoa, while Rangitāne is also on the same coastline just further south.
I was born in the Cook Islands, where there is a close association with the Takitimu waka, the canoe of the Ngāti Kahungunu ancestors, to whom I whakapapa (connect genealogically).
While I am a registered social worker, my education is really in Sociology, Anthropology and History but due to the ‘strong’ encouragement of a kaumatua (elder) Turoa Haronga, because I was facilitating learning on a social work programme, I completed competency to practice and then registration as a social worker.
My passion and commitment are to progress tangata whenua knowledge and skills in any field of practice and to challenge mainstream / generic services, where constraint of the legitimacy to practice as the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa may be evident. In keeping with this commitment, I also work to tautoko (support) all indigenous peoples in the same endeavours.
Caroline Tana-Tepania
Carole is of Nga Puhi descent and was born in Mangere, South Auckland – the place she was nurtured and calls home. She has been married for 26 years, with daughters aged 21, 29 and 30. Carole was blessed with the first of four mokopuna in 2014. She comes from a ‘blended family’ and is the second daughter in a line of 11 children. This has grounded her in the importance of family in all she does as a social worker.
Carole commenced her social work journey in 2001. She has experience in various roles including community crisis work, Social Worker in Schools and supervision. Carole is part of the managerial team of Mangere East Family Service Centre. She has spent the past 11 years nurturing grounded ethical practice within the Manaaki Tangata Team, a team of community and school-based social workers.
Carole wears many hats; she is a daughter, sister, mother, aunt, grandmother and wife. She has professional affiliations with the ANZASW, TWSWA and SWRB. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (Social Work) from Massey University.
