Community Voices is our new webinar series where we invite people to kōrero with us on belonging and inclusion related topics. It’s about amplifying the voices and views/whakaaro of different communities from across the motu. 

Our first five webinars for 2022 are on the topic of  What’s Your Tūrangawaewae? where we gather a group of people from the community to share the stories of their tūrangawaewae.

Before the webinar each guest was given the following questions to reflect on:

1. What is your Tūrangawaewae?
2. Does this (or a similar concept) concept exist in your culture?
3. What words, icons, images or objects do you use to describe your tūrangawaewae?
4. What can we do to ensure everyone in Aotearoa NZ can find and talk about their tūrangawaewae, their place of belonging?

A big mihi to our voices from the community:

• Eimaan Hamid was born and raised in the Kingdom of Tonga until the early 90s, when she then moved to New Zealand.  She is a reverted Muslim and a Pakistani by marriage, the mother of 7 children and grandmother of two grandchildren. For the last 7 years she has worked as a Public Servant at the Ministry of Social Development. Her passion to help others and embrace other cultures has led her to become a Governance member of Manawaka Ao, and the Women Wing Lead of the Pakistan Association of NZ.
• Logan Byrne is a Cook Island/Māori/Irish wahine who grew up in Pito-one, Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She is passionate about community development, civic engagement and intercultural communication as a tool for building empathy and resilience. During the day she works for Manatū Aorere New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and in her spare time, serves as an Event Planner for the Social Change Collective and as Secretary of the Board for Evolve Wellington Youth Service.  
• Leila Foster is of Māori (Tainui Waikato) Kuki ‘Airani and Pākehā descent, born and raised in South Auckland and now living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She is a student of Anthropology and Business Management, and through an internship opportunity with TupuToa she also works in the insurance sector as a Quality Assurance Advisor. Outside of this Leila advocates for youth mental health through Te Ahi ō Ngā Rangtahi. She is guided by her love for people, language and culture which informs her interest in the intersections between community, indigenous dreaming and design thinking. Leila is deeply curious about the ways we can use these concepts to create organisational change.