Socially relevant curriculum and the importance of opening up spaces for negotiation and 'meaning making' to occur are increasingly common ideas in my academic writing. In this article, I argue that cultural otherness, anti-racism, spirituality and religion are fundamental to contemporary socially relevant curricula. In it, I report how student teachers made meaning in an asynchronous online discussion forum in the aftermath of the terrorist massacre at Christchurch mosques in Aotearoa New Zealand in March 2019. Dominant discourses and critical questions are highlighted for teachers in early childhood and tertiary education settings about religion, racism and cultural otherness. The central argument is that these issues are highly pertinent to all: they speak to the things that matter at this time. This article makes an original and timely contribution to understandings of how teachers, including preservice teachers, and children and their families can be supported to make sense of traumatic events.