Shifting the equity conversation from aspiration to action
EHF Mini-Springboard, November 2021 - Session round up: Intergenerational Economic Transformation Opportunity for Rangatahi
Facilitated by: Shay Wright (EHF Fellow and co-founder of Te Whare Hukahuka)
Featuring: Eruera Prendergast-Tarena and Hinepounamu Apanui-Barr of Māori Futures Collective
Showcasing: Pūhoro STEMM (Naomi Manu), Young Animators (Nikoro Ngaropo), Digital Natives Academy (Potaua Biasiny-Tule), Young Enterprise (Ian Musson)
Bringing focus to a shared, systemic challenge
Facilitator Shay Wright opened this session with some reflections on the inequitable repercussions of societal and systems-level shifts which disproportionately impact young Māori and Pasifika people. “When we observe our taiao (environment), we see that these waves of change come in sets. That really is the case in this current form of disruption: digital disruption, globalisation, automation, economic models, healthcare systems, natural systems and even our demographics are changing significantly and rapidly.
If you’re used to surfing the waves of change, then the prospect of it isn’t such a bad thing; in fact it can be quite exciting. But, overwhelmingly, those waves crash on the heads of some. In New Zealand, that tends to be battering and drowning those who don’t have the luxury of education, connections and support to brace for change, and Māori tend to be at the forefront of that.”
What followed was an intensive, 3-hour working session highlighting both challenges and opportunities for rangatahi, featuring several organisations in Aotearoa who are working hard to enable young Māori and Pasifika people to surf those waves. Participants were challenged to explore these discussions through a disciplined lens of collective impact, in which aligned organisations can address these issues in a coordinated and structured way. The Fellows and the wider network of participants were challenged to contribute some thinking and resources to initiatives which are working to transform the intergenerational economic futures of rangatahi, and to explore a collective perspective about what framework might need to be put in place to amplify and magnify their impact.
Reflections from Māori Futures Collective
The session’s keynote speakers, Eruera Prendergast-Tarena and Hinepounamu Apanui-Barr of Māori Futures Collective, urged participants to look back in order to move forward. “We’re not great at thinking about how we created inequity in the first place and what we’re doing today to sustain that. Half of Māori people have been deprived of a qualification. Half of our people are in low-skill, low-pay, high-vulnerability work. And, unsurprisingly, half of our people are in occupations that are going to be most negatively impacted by the anticipated changes from the future of work,” Eruera said.
“These things didn't happen by accident. You had overtly racist government policies where the intent was to create a blue-collar workforce, all based around the idea of racial superiority: Māori will make their means by manual labour, not mental labour. A lot of those overtly racist ideas have been embedded and become cultural norms. Even Māori will say ‘we’re good with our hands’ but, you know, our hands are operated by our heads.”
Both Shay and Eruera stressed an impending demographic shift whereby by 2050 half of the workforce will be Māori, Pasifika or Asian, and those people will need to generate a healthy tax flow to support an aging Pākehā population. With the pay gap for Māori already sitting at $2.6b, we have an Aotearoa, Inc. problem, not a Māori problem, Eruera said. “The opportunity is in how we support a “younger, faster-growing, browner workforce”.
Hinepounamu highlighted Māori Futures Collective’s skills-based approach, where employment opportunities are clustered by a similarity of skills, enabling rangatahi to be more agile and diversify their portfolios to prepare for a changing workforce. “The idea is to capture opportunities on those winds of change. The job cluster methodology speaks to the idea that it should, in theory, be easy for people to gain upward mobility or switch careers if something were to happen,” she said. The key lies in creating a shift from linear career paths based on qualifications to a path which maximises the transferable skills in one’s kete to create a long and stable career.
“The data shows that rangatahi will have 18 jobs across 5 industries in their lives which, again, speaks to the need to be agile and have a diverse range of skills. This is not to dismiss qualifications, but to challenge the fact that the entry into high-skilled jobs is really over-credentialised. We need to open up those gates in order to create equity. We know that most Māori don’t go to university. We know that the university rates for Pasifika are also really low. We need to ensure that those demographics still have access to high-level education and high-skilled jobs.”
Showcasing Solution-Builders
The Digital Natives Academy in Rotorua
From there, the session opened up to showcase a range of speakers from initiatives that are integrating Māori knowledge to create solutions that enable Māori and Pasifika youth to find pathways to future-proofed, high-value careers. The showcase was a reminder that there are dozens of initiatives working in this space, working in different areas at different scales. Pūhoro STEMM, presented by CEO, Naomi Manu, has proven a need and a solution and reached an impressive scale. The second M in STEMM, Shay noted, represents mātauranga Māori. “Fewer than 2% of the scientific workforce are Māori,” Naomi said. “To address that, we established a long-term pipeline from the last three years of secondary school through tertiary and into employment. This long-term approach means that employers are participating in this kaupapa and walking alongside young Māori from secondary school onward. When a student registers with this program, we also register their family as we see whānau as a key driver of success.”
Not only is Pūhoro supporting Māori academically, but also providing a Māori lens and worldview to keep rangatahi anchored with their identity and building confidence in a learning environment which is most conducive to their success. They’re also working with industry to create opportunities and internships which build critical STEM networks early. Success is evaluated both internally and externally and focuses on achievement and participation of rangatahi, as well as the engagement of their whānau. “We started this programme with 97 students in the Manawatū area and we now have over 1000 students, nationwide. Over the next 5 years, we’re looking to expand to 5,000 students.”
In their success lies one of their biggest challenges, Naomi said, with the need to scale whilst maintaining the quality of the programme. Right now, their Māori students are achieving parity with non-Māori students across the science and technology qualifications framework and are 5 times more likely than other Māori students to achieve university entrance and go on to start a degree programme. This is having tangible social impact and creating significant economic value with the organisation being valued, conservatively, at $92m this year.
Next to present was EHF Fellow and Founder of Young Animators, Nikoro Ngaropo, who is creating pathways for young people to get into the animation and games industry. “Having spent years in the visual effects industry, I’d seen teams of 1500 people which had maybe 5 Māori. When we started Young Animators from the ground up, we just weren’t seeing Māori move into these spaces because they couldn’t see a direction or pathway for their creativity and they didn't see themselves represented by role models in the space.”
Nikoro highlighted Young Animators’ focus on a location-agnostic, end-to-end solution for rangatahi to create pathways for a range of opportunities throughout the animation pipeline, not exclusively for artists. He also highlighted that getting these programmes into the curriculum was challenging given the context of risk aversion to emerging industries and technologies. “We would love to see support with logistics, long-term strategy, administration, policy and connection with different communities to ensure that there’s a voice coming through in those spaces; making these opportunities available at a local level for tamariki.” Ultimately, what Young Animators needs now is philanthropic investment; as Nikoro put it “not a hand-out, but a hand in.”
Following in a similar vein was Potaua Biasiny-Tule from Digital Natives Academy, which is helping to illuminate career pathways in creative and digital technology. “When I was a kid, we used to go and play all the arcade games down at the fish and chip shops and the local dairies. For us, it was entertainment and escapism, but also social connectivity.” For the current generation of tamariki, this has evolved from arcade games to Minecraft, he said. “My wife and I started Digital Natives about 7 years back and it is our sanctuary where we inspire the next generation of digital leaders… It started with a koha computer from the Council and four computers we harvested out of the dump’s e-waste. We opened Digital Natives Academy so our kids could, first, play Minecraft. Then we started training them on code, graphic interfaces, WordPress and ultimately animation, digital storytelling and development. Now it’s AR and VR. Every year, we’ve added some new piece of tech.
In 2010, we’d gone around looking for other Māori in the IT industry and we found about 500, but most geeks are introverts. If we get a job, we stick to ourselves. What I realised is that, by connecting Māori, we could just talk and since then we’ve taken every opportunity we have to get Māori together. We were all alone until we found each other.”
Looking ahead, Potaua highlighted the need for better education around AI and 5G in order to combat misinformation about these technologies. He also stressed the need for solid links between training and industry with apprenticeships for Māori not just in tech roles, but also in senior management and governance.
The initiatives were rounded out with an entrepreneurial focus from Ian Musson, Head of Māori Engagement at Young Enterprise. While not a Māori organisation, Young Enterprise delivers entrepreneurial and innovation programmes to 85% of Aotearoa’s high schools. “That platform means that we have a greater responsibility to do more for Māori. We have reach and with that reach comes a lot of accountability and the need to do more,” Ian said. He reflected that, as a student, Young Enterprise was a driving force in creating his confidence and aspiration for his own future. “We know that there’s underrepresentation of Māori, our Pacific whānau, our lower income whānau and a whole range of marginalised groups in entrepreneurial activity. A lot of this persists, in part, because indigenous and other non-western cultures have been unfairly portrayed as being averse to excellence in these areas. As a result, those notions carry on to young people and their self-belief in what they can achieve”
The focus for Young Enterprise is learning how to help rangatahi harness their innate ability to unleash future leaders. “Going back to what Hinepounamu said earlier, it’s all about moving from quals to skills; helping our young people recognise what they do have that can benefit them in the future.” The programme currently has 4701 students in 21 regions, about 18% of which are Māori which, Ian said, is positive but shows room for improvement, particularly when reaching rangatahi in the regional parts of Aotearoa. “If we can help young people become beacons in those communities, then it snowballs.”
How can EHF contribute towards positive change and opportunities for Rangatahi?
This session ended with a number of smaller discussions to provide focused support for specific projects and explore how a collective impact model might be implemented.
This work really marks the beginning of a beginning, with an open question - how can EHF Fellows genuinely contribute to the work being done on this important, systemic challenge?
The Edmund Hillary Fellowship has some unique opportunity for impact. With a large number of EHF Fellows bringing a global mindset, networks and vast experience, woven together with kiwi Fellows working on many challenges in New Zealand. How might these elements work together and contribute collectively impactful solutions that create a more equitable future for rangatahi?
The answer begins with more listening and learning from those who are leading the doing.
Bringing together leaders and solution builders in this space highlights the complexity of this intergenerational, uniquely Aotearoa specific challenge - and also the clear win-for-all scenario that emerges if we can make progress. There is much to understand to continue in order to build understanding, trusted relationships and to bring collaborative potential into focus - and to start building together.
As Hinepounamu put it, “as much as there is fear and worry about changes in the future, there is also an opportunity now to front-foot that change and to start designing the conditions which will make a more equitable future of work, not only for Māori, but for all of Aotearoa.”
This is the work to be done and the road that lies in front of us from here as we convene future sessions to build on this work.
You can watch the full recording of the session here.
To contribute to this ongoing work, or if you are interested in future engagement on this kaupapa, filling in this form will help us direct your support to these projects and workstream.