Ngā Rangatahi Toa is a creative youth development community arts organisation, that facilitates creative arts and wellbeing programmes in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Ngā Rangatahi Toa aims to reconnect rangatahi (youth) with their potential. Ngā Rangatahi Toa projects take the form of noho wānanga (learning camps), in-school creative education programmes, a flagship theatre project called Manawa Ora, fortnightly youth mentoring sessions, employment internships and more, all within a whānau wrap-around support system. Projects are meaningfully connected to each other and scaffold rangatahi through a process of rangatiratanga (leadership) to prepare them for adulthood.

Lead Facilitator

Huia O’Sullivan

Executive Director Ngā Rangatahi Toa

Collaborators

Each Ngā Rangatahi Toa project brings on board a wide range of artists to lead, mentor and facilitate.

Expanded Summary:

Ngā Rangatahi Toa was founded on the belief that all young people in Aotearoa New Zealand deserve the opportunity to explore their potential through education. Recognising that, for a number of different reasons, some young people slip through the cracks of the education system and schooling, Ngā Rangatahi Toa was established to provide access for young people who may not often get the opportunity to actively participate in creativity. Ngā Rangatahi Toa partners with schools, identifying students who may not be having a good experience at school or might be on the verge of dropping out of school, often from lower-socio economic regions of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Ngā Rangatahi Toa harnesses the power of creativity as a catalyst for important life skills including confidence, communication skills, lateral thinking, relationship-building, accountability, and commitment. Te ao Māori (Māori world-view, the Indigenous world-view from Aotearoa) values are at the foundation of the programme, including:

• Kotahitanga : working together towards a common goal while being accepting of difference

• Manaakitanga: caring for others and Papatūaūnuku

• Ako: Reciprocity of learning

• Rangatiratanga: Self determination through an understanding of self

OUTCOME:

Rangatahi often enter the programmes with Ngā Rangatahi Toa at Year 9 level (approx. age 13) and stay until Year 13 (approx. age 18), creating a long-term investment into them and their whānau (family). An important approach that Ngā Rangatahi Toa takes is to disrupt space through creativity, but not just running a “one off”. Each project scaffolds on from the last, with programmes having whakapapa (genealogy/layering of history). Through whakapapa, inter-connected relationships, and creativity, rangatahi involved in Ngā Rangatahi Toa build care for themselves, their peers, whānau and community. Ngā Rangatahi Toa carefully measure their outcomes to know that they are making a difference, Outcomes include a reduction in youth suicide and self-harm, a reduction in youth offending, and re-engagement with schools. Most of all they see rangatahi developing the confidence to own their own space, develop resilience, and create their own aspirations for their futures.

The Unexpected:

Director Wendy Preston has observed that creative practitioners/artists can get emotionally connected to the participants (due to the nature of close relationships that can occur in a meaningful interaction between providers and participants) which can complicate professional and ethical boundaries. Artists are not always skilled at providing comprehensive psychological support and the Mixit leadership have learnt that while there must be an ethical basis of care - this does NOT mean becoming too tangled with participants' potentially very complex lives and needs beyond the delivery of activities and recognised, careful levels of ongoing support. Mixit is also adapting to the changing environment around acceptance of trans-gender orientation. Many of the families and communities Mixit works with can be conservative and suspicious of these societal changes. The Mixit team acknowledges it’s a current challenge how to deal with young people in this regard and working to retain an ethical platform of acceptance, support and increased understanding.

We will be accountable for what we can do with you and the family that we work with, and for us it’s a long-term investment into whānau (families). My biggest KPI is that I can look a Nanny in the face, in her eyes, and let her know that I’ve got her moko (grandchild) and that we have cared and we have done everything in our duty of care to look after her moko.

— Huia O’Sullivan
CONSIDERATIONS:

A consideration for Ngā Rangatahi Toa is ensuring accountability to the community and families the rangatahi participants are from. Many of these communities and families may have had interactions with social services or government organisations that may not have been positive, and Ngā Rangatahi Toa ensures that whānau know the project team can be trusted with their young person. Director Huia O’Sullivan notes “The biggest KPI is that I can look a nanny in the eye and say we’ve done everything in our power to take care of her moko (grandchild). This is our duty of care back to our whānau and families”.

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The project considers the inequities that Māori and Pasifika youth and families face, therefore the team work to reduce any barriers of access – this includes picking up rangatahi, feeding them, and bringing them out of their neighbourhood into central city locations to allow for cross-pollination of ideas and broadens their worldview which contributes to discovering a sense of belonging.

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An important part of the project is co-design with rangatahi, so the rangatahi can contribute to the design of the programmes. This ensures the programme stays relevant to their needs and gives them agency through self-determination.

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Cultural values which reflect the rangatahi’s cultural backgrounds, particularly for Māori (the Indigenous people of Aotearoa), are at the core of the work of Ngā Rangatahi Toa. On a practical level this includes using the Tapa Whā* model of wellbeing, engaging cultural advisors, and using tikanga (cultural protocols) and processes such as wānanga (space for sharing & deliberating ideas), karakia (incantations), and mihi whakatau at the start of projects (cultural welcome protocol to greet and settle). This layer of incorporating cultural values and processes ensure all participants in the project and their whānau are kept safe - physically, mentally and spiritually.

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As the project is working with youth, Ngā Rangatahi Toa are mindful of working ethically. They have a 1:4 ratio of facilitator to rangatahi, all pou arahi (guiding artists) are police vetted, screened and fully inducted into the Ngā Rangatahi Toa way. Spaces are recced prior to events taking place to ensure they are suitable and safe, and the leadership team are very intentional about the kaupapa and operations, from planning to delivery and debrief.

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The team have been considering measures of success, and one question the team has been considering is how to measure “mauri” as an indicator of success? (Mauri is life-force, the essential quality and vitality of a being)

RESOURCES

To learn more, or for more information please see:

Definitions:

Young person, or young people.

Strong

Family

Leadership and Self-Determination

Grandchild

life-force, essence and quality of life

A wellbeing model developed by leading Māori health advocate Sir Mason Durie in 1984, describing health and wellbeing as a wharenui/ meeting house with 4 walls.

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