Tāiki e!

Kia ora e te whānau! Welcome back to our podcast! We have a visitor this week that, having come to our beautiful Te Tairāwhiti, has fallen in love with the courage and the resilience of our whānau. Sasha Lockley's story is one of overcoming great obstacles, of growing and evolving into something bigger that can serve and support others. She sees the endurance of hardship as the origin of an endless source of power from which we draw to get up over and over until we rise above our biggest fears and challenges. This secret power lies within every one of us, and grows beyond our wildest dreams when we share it and build it up with each other. Nau mai, haere mai, whakarongo mai! 

Kia ora whānau! Welcome to another episode of our Tāiki e! Podcast, today we are joined by Emelie Verseput, a young wahine who has chosen to dedicate her time and energy to empowering her community in Tauranga Moana by creating resources and pathways to facilitate and support entrepreneurship/kaupapa in response to community needs. Emelie has had the fortune to find herself surrounded by passionate people like herself that have a wealth of experience in this field, creating a fertile ground for her to grow and feel embraced in her journey of becoming her best self. We had the blessing to spend some time with her while she was in Turanga, and these are the words that she left to mark our experience together. May her message find you all in good health. 

Kia ora e te whānau! Our guest this week is Nikki Kennedy, founder of Taputapu, a pakihi that sells homewares, utensils and picnic articles all with kupu māori as part of their design. Nikki has found an interesting way to put Te Reo Māori in front of everyone through her products and expand her experience of entrepreneurship, overcoming the whakamā of putting herself out there and believing in her potential. A great korero that brings us along in a journey of growth and passion.

Welcome back! In this week's episode we're joined by Sarah Cleave, a great storyteller who has found her home right here in our Te Tairāwhiti community. Hers is a journey of connection and dedication to service, particularly through rescuing and sharing those little big moments of interpersonal connection that open a door to look inside someone else's path through life and how they experience the world. We're very happy to share her impactful story and her kaupapa as part of Gizzy Local. Thanks for listening!

This week we are joined by Phil Kupenga, a local boy (his words) that has been exploring the possibilties for future work in our rohe, based on his journey of navigating the different paths of employment and the experiences this has brought throughout his life. 20 years after leaving Te Tairāwhiti for the first time, his kaupapa is all about realising the potential our people hold. With the reality that Covid-19 and the Lockdown measures have brought about, it's clear to him that our rohe should be utilising the wide span of possibilities provided by Tech and Innovation. All we got to do is begin. Thanks for joining us again this week!

Welcome back to the Tāiki e! Podcast. We are starting 2021 with a beautiful story about resilience, service and art. Joining us today is Adel Salmanzadeh, who joined our Te Tairāwhiti whanau shortly before lockdown started, back in March. Having come to Aotearoa as a refugee over 30 years ago, he has found in his experience the inspiration to become a facilitator for whānau to heal and connect through art. Please join us as we take a look at his journey leading to this point, and how he envisions the path going forward.