Powering communities — sit down with community groups (pt. 1)

Each year, we use profits from the sale of .nz domain names to give out community funding. Community groups that receive our funding do amazing work to make a better Internet for Aotearoa. 

It’s our privilege to support them, and we’ve been working to adapt our processes to be people-centered and mana-honouring. We sat down with some of these groups to kōrero about the response to their programmes and the importance of equity and creating pathways that enable opportunities.

We talked to

• Tony Laulu, Founder of Digital Discipline. 
• Jesse Armstrong, Founder + Kaihautū / Chief Executive Officer of Vaka.
• Shanon O'Connor, Director of Tōnui Collab Charitable Trust. 
• Hannah Simmonds, Pou Angitu for Ngā Kura a Iwi o Aotearoa. 

The programmes

Digital Discipline — educating about social media addiction

They’re on a mission to enhance people's digital wellbeing across New Zealand. They educate people about social media addiction to help them work towards a more balanced digital lifestyle.

Vaka —  an education package, focused on teaching 3D printing and entrepreneurship 

They empower everyday people with the knowledge and tools they need to navigate the oceans of STEAM* and entrepreneurship. One way is through 3D printing, which is one of the few technologies that bridges the digital and physical realm, sparking innovation and opening pathways for young minds.

*Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

Tōnui Collab Charitable Trust — exploring STEMM 

They’re a specialist education partner dedicated to creating innovative reo rua/dual language STEMM learning opportunities for learners in Te Tairāwhiti. Rangatahi are invited to explore the diversity of STEMM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths, and Mātauranga Māori.

Ngā Kura a Iwi o Aotearoa — E-sports live streamed in Te Reo Māori

They advocate for the rights and aspirations of their iwi, whānau, kura, staff, and students by establishing and nurturing partnerships with tribal entities, government agencies, and the private sector to support the schools’ kaupapa and strategic priorities. Their recent event, Te Ahi Orokohanga 2024 was a collaborative Minecraft E-sports experience commentated and live-streamed in Te Reo Māori.

The response has been glowing

Talking with the group, it’s awesome to hear that the response to these programmes has been massive!  

Digital Discipline has reached over 3000+ learners in their first three years.

“I feel like a pastor. People aren’t aware, but once you start talking about it they sort of get it. It’s about being respectful but confronting enough. People always have positive feedback.” — Tony, Digital Discipline. 

Vaka is going from strength to strength, with their e-STEAM¹⁰¹ programme as their bread and butter, and have so much more in the works — they have 80 organisations on the waitlist!

“We have too much demand, which is a good thing. But at the same time, it's also a bit gutting because I wish I had infinite resources to be able to provide this training plan.” — Jesse, Vaka.

For Tōnui Collab’s Kōhine Robotics Expo, seven new kura from across Te Tairāwhiti joined the kaupapa alongside the seven kura that started in 2023. 

For Ngā Kura a Iwi o Aotearoa, the number of kura with ākonga competing at Te Ahi Orokohanga 2024 more than doubled compared to the first year they ran the event.

Importance of equity and creating pathways

During the kōrero, we spoke about the driving principles at the core of each organisation's kaupapa and heard repeatedly about the importance of equity, service to others, and creating pathways that enable opportunities.

Working in the digital wellbeing space, Tony talked about the origins of Digital Discipline stemming from incidents where schools and whānau need support dealing with situations that can manifest in person, as a result of something going wrong online.

“We’re in the same sort of space, of creating options for kura and whānau. It’s not about stopping people from being online, but about opening up the space for talking about parameters and keeping safe. The online should supplement what you’re doing in real life, applying those values in the online space.” — Tony, Digital Discipline. 

“It's been powerful. Whānau have expressed that at times, they've felt excluded from the conversation, and they're really appreciative, not only of the opportunity that we're creating for the tamariki but also of the fact that we value and welcome their involvement in the kaupapa. Institutions have not always been a nurturing learning environment for many, including tamariki Māori, and so while we strive to be education allies, we won't do it to the extent that will compromise the integrity of our pedagogy and our learning philosophies.” — Shanon, Tōnui Collab.

“It’s all about serving our kura, ensuring that no matter where you are you have access. Our kura nurtures language, culture and heritage. For our whānau who have made that choice, it shouldn’t be a barrier to any opportunities that they and their tamariki and rangatahi want to pursue. It’s why we do what we do. We stand firmly in that space of mana motuhake. We don’t tell kura what to do, but provide those pathways.” — Hannah, Ngā Kura a Iwi o Aotearoa.

Working together so that pathways become clearer

Jesse, Shanon, and Hannah all talked about how valuable it is to all work together, to connect better and make the pathways clearer and more robust. Programmes like these can spark innovation and get young people interested in pursuing tech. They drive demand and create pressure at the high school level and beyond. In order to move forward, there needs to be opportunities that are accessible, culturally inclusive, affordable, and local. It’s not about one programme being the be-all and end-all for everyone but by opening doors and pathways for different people and creating visibility on the different options. 

“Our long-term vision is to have a space for them to access the machines and find people who are really serious and maybe they end up selling their first product, they start their business or they may go through that process and think I'm not really that keen to do a business, but I'm really keen to look at pursuing the technology career or getting into 3D design or industrial design. If we have the right connections we can offload them to organisations who can take them further, who specialise in those parts.” These challenges are not evenly felt across different regions. — Jesse, Vaka.

“The aspiration is that we see more Māori in tech and in science and technology roles. The realisation of that is about how we strengthen the pathways and make more visible the opportunities to pursue futures in science and technology. The pathways are unstable, they're not clear. In a region like Tairāwhiti, there are numerous challenges, but there are also amazing opportunities because it’s a region where we’re relatively small and we have a heart for collaboration. There's the opportunity for us to solve some of these challenges or collectively lift these rocks out of the way, but we need support to do that. We are more than keen, we’re hungry to work collaboratively to solve that challenge. We need to create a framework that's accessible for all who need and want it, centering equity.” — Shanon, Tōnui Collab.

InternetNZ | Ipurangi Aotearoa

We use profits from the sale of .nz domain names to give out community funding. That means anyone who has a website ending in .nz, contributes to all the amazing positive public impact work that happens because of this funding. Find out more about this pūtea.