ABSTRACT
Th e Maori whakatauki (Kōrero Māori, Whakatauki proverbs) shared above frames the focus of this chapter. It encourages those who read it to focus their attention on nurturing the people around them and the relationships that connect and embrace these people. It is my belief that such a whakatauki is pertinent for educational leaders as they bring forward past stories and experiences to navigate the increasingly complex challenges within their centers for learning, schools, and wider communities while at the same time holding relationships central to their work. Reneti (2012), an educational leader working in the area of early childhood education, has contextualized this whakatauki in her work to illuminate its relevance to the relational focus of socially just educational leadership.
