A blog post by Jayme Rae Anae
Photographer: Melissa Banks Photography
Manawa mai te mauri nuku
Manawa mai te mauri rangi
Ko te mauri kai au,
he mauri tipua
Ka pakaru mai te pō
Tau mai te mauri
Haumi e, hui e, taiki e!
I mate koe I te aroha
Titiro atu ki Taranaki
Kia kite koe te auahi
A kui e tahu e
Waikato taniwha rau
He piko, he taniwha
He piko, he taniwha
Ko Jayme Anae tōku ingoa. He kaitauira ahau mō AuOra ki Wakatū Incorporation.
Kia ora e te whānau, my name is Jayme Anae and I am one of the interns of AuOra. My passion is in management, gaming, music and Japanese studies. It was due to my knowledge of the culture and language of Japanese that led to me joining the AuOra team and has given me further opportunities to upskill myself.
In March, Te Rito Hughes (a fellow intern with AuOra) and I were invited to take part in Te Kuru Tao, a two-day event presented as part of Tūpuna Pono (Being Good Ancestors programme), held in Whakatū Nelson.
Jayme Rae Anae (L) and Te Rito Hughes (R) presenting at Te Kuru Tao.
Photo: Melissa Banks Photography
The purpose of Te Kuru Tao was to bring together passionate rangatahi from all over the motu to give them a voice on climate issues, to learn about te ao Māori worldviews, and to allow rangatahi the opportunity to prototype and workshop solutions to climate challenges.
Day one started with a karakia by Ihaka Griffin-Matthews and an icebreaker. We eagerly listened to Aneika Young tell a story of te ao Māori, her relationship with the taiao (environment) and our responsibility to the taiao as kaitiaki.
We heard about climate challenges from Deputy Mayor Rohan O’Neil-Stephens, went through problem acceleration and lean canvas, and began our prototyping workshop. At the end of the day, we were challenged with coming up with solutions to our problem statements and preparing a pitch to present to our fellow participants and whānau on day two.
Day two arrived, and we dove straight into workshopping our solutions. I was in a two-person team alongside my fellow intern Te Rito Hughes, known as the Climatez. Our problem statement was: ‘people are not educated enough, or aware enough of climate issues and how they will affect the people and the land.’
We began our presentation with a karakia, a mihi to attendees and fellow participants, and got straight into our pitch. Our idea was to create two interactive pieces here in Whakatū. Kāhui Tipua (shape-shifting giants) and Tūrehu (fairy folk), with our new whakataukī “Mau te wā heke ki te wā tū,” Bringing the future to the present.
Kāhui Tipua is a pou that shows us how high the sea will rise when a button is pressed. For example, pressing the ‘25 YEARS’ button will show you how high the sea-level will rise in 25 years based on projections.
We wanted to create something interactive for people to engage with. Something that held a lot of information accessible by the press of a button, and artist Yasmin el Orfi helped us bring it to life.
Another beautiful piece drawn by Yasmin is Tūrehu. An interactive billboard that shows how abundant our baskets are now, compared to how scarce produce could be in the future.
Like Kāhui Tipua, we wanted to use a dial to show how scarce it will be in the future if we continue along the path of ignorance and neglect.
Of course, instead of showing the negative effects we could also showcase a continuous growing abundance of food to encourage viewers to be more conscious of their footprint.
Personally, I enjoyed presenting our pitch to the whānau. We got to stand in front of our mentors, fellow participants (Miriana Stephens and Paul Morgan) to speak about something we became passionate about.
After our presentation we went through a round of questions that we quickly got through, and it felt inspiring.
Overall, the event was a remarkable success. For someone like me, who is part of the problem statement I spoke about in my own presentation, I found it extremely enlightening and motivating. To be part of such a conscious group of rangatahi gives me hope for a future our ancestors only dreamed of.
I cannot wait to see how they all develop, and I look forward to taking part again!
Ngā mihi nui,
Jayme Rae Anae.