Should We Be Afraid of Co-governance?
By Susan Healy This reflection is based on an article published in the April 2023 issue of Tui Motu Interislands: Independent Catholic Magazine . Susan Healy is a Pākehā woman of Irish, English and Cornish descent. She is co-author of Ngāpuhi Speaks: He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Independent Report on the Ngāpuhi Nui Tonu Claim , 2012. Fears can be learned When we were growing up, our neighbours across the road had a couple of bull dogs. The dogs had a roaming area in front of the house but were well fenced in. We older kids in our family liked to go over and talk with the dogs and reach across and stroke their heads. We would take my two-year-old sister with us, and she loved the dogs as much as we did. We were astonished when, at age four, my sister suddenly developed a real fear of the dogs and wouldn’t go near them. Where did this come from? We soon realised that she was now spending time with friends her own age; they would cringe with fear whenever they saw the do