Māori, Pasifika, and Woman Can Thrive In Technology and Innovation In Aotearoa; I’ve Seen It!

Aotearoa needs more ‘job-creators’; people that create jobs for themselves and others. In my view, there is no better time to inspire under-represented communities into becoming tech entrepreneurs. Embracing technology and entrepreneurship has the power to move Māori, Pasifika and women from ‘job-takers’ to ‘job-creators’ but also, I believe, solve the problems that matter most to people and society.

Ponder this; why does Aotearoa have certain sectors, like technology, that have a low concentration of Māori, Pasifika and women? On the other hand, why do we have an over-representation of these communities in other sectors, like construction or healthcare? And based on these sectors, how might your income - and thereby the income of your family, whanau or aiga - differ if you were to follow a construction or healthcare pathway versus a technology pathway?

Did you know that combined, Māori and Pasifika make up less than 12 per cent of people in the technology sector? Women make up less than 33 per cent. In my view, we have too many people in under-represented communities trying to play on a field that tells them they can’t play here. In a country that is the fourth most diverse country globally, this seems both wrong and a missed opportunity. 

I contend that Māori, Pasifika and women have the skills, capability, intellect and mana, to be ‘job-creators. In fact, being ‘job takers' harms the future prosperity, wellbeing and capability of these communities. I also contend there is an unprecedented opportunity for people who are excluded from jobs and excluded from sectors to reimagine and shift the playing field on outdated and old-school thinking that has inherent bias at its heart.

Covid-19 has presented the conditions and opportunity to create a new playing field, not play on a field that’s not accepting nor welcoming. As examples; bank lending rates are at historic lows meaning access to cheap capital, software providers are offering free and extended trials to encourage startups, and experienced people, tired of the ‘box’ of corporate life, are wanting to see, touch and feel something different - they want to feel connected, want to contribute. They want to help.

Why I say, there is an opportunity to do things differently. I was blessed to be a part of Hack Tamaki from the 26th to the 28th of March. Hosted by local Tāmaki family business Jacobsen, Hack Tāmaki was a 48-hour hackathon with a difference. It sought to help five organisations, each doing good things in the Tamaki region, connect with under-represented communities like Māori, Pasifika and women and solve the challenges whilst also uplifting the collective tech and innovation capability of those participating.

Hack Tāmaki was enabled through the generous support and sponsorship of Tāmaki Regeneration Company and Auckland Unlimited. Te Tira Toi Whakangao and The Kerry Topp Collective delivered it. And the kaupapa was also generously supported in a variety of way by Datacom, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Jacobsen, The Ministry of Education, Pak ‘n’ Save Glen Innes, and Harrison Grierson. These organisations' support truly unlocked something special: a celebration of diversity, entrepreneurship, technology and innovation.

Hack Tāmaki resonated with the values of our major sponsor, the TRC. One of their key goals is to support Tāmaki businesses, stimulate growth and create jobs for locals. We saw five local businesses and 100+ people of diverse backgrounds - with 33 per cent of participants being of Māori and Pasifika-descent, 41 per cent women and an estimated 15-20 per cent from the area - come together under the watchful gaze of Maungarei Mt Wellington to solve the community’s and the five local organisations’ pressing challenges.

What was abundantly clear to me throughout Hack Tāmaki was that the Māori, Pasifika and women attending were just as innovative, just as commercially savvy, and just as comfortable presenting as others, but on a day-in-day-out basis, they don’t have or get the same access to opportunity those others have access to. As a middle-aged white male of Irish descent, I feel even more strongly about Hack Tāmaki. If many of the people attending the hackathon had been afforded the same opportunities I have been blessed to have been afforded in life, by virtue of whom I was born to and where I was born, then after this weekend, I’m left questioning what our world might look like today? Very different, and better, I suspect.

I was in awe and blown away by the diversity of the people attending but, more importantly, just how talented they were. I had never seen that mix of smiling brown, white and female and male faces before in tech. And I can tell you; I don’t want to go back. It was something deeply moving and special - it felt ‘natural’ and now, to go back to what others deem ‘normal’ feels, well, completely ‘unnatural’ and far from normal.

And here’s why!

One of the key insights that came from observing a greater number of Maori, Pasifika and women interacting in such great numbers was the level of connection. Connection to each other, but also a connection to culture and values. The level of care struck me. The level of commitment to each other in the mission struck me. It wasn't competitive. It wasn't cutthroat. It was supportive; everyone had a place and was welcome and able to contribute. And I'd go so far as to say aroha and love rippled through tech in Tamaki that weekend. 

What we saw was people supporting each other. This community and collective of strangers bound through mission found ways to assist each other in ways I’d not seen or thought possible before - certainly not in the corporate world.

Why change the playing field? Simple, if we want more of what we felt at Hack Tāmaki, and I, for one do, why not create a new reality. Why not create a world, starting in Tāmaki [Makaurau] Aotearoa that sees Māori, Pasifika and women having a place where they can foster and support and help each other succeed. If you're of Māori or Pasifika-descent or a woman and you're thinking, why can’t I get the job or this education system isn't for me, then maybe charting your own course and being an entrepreneur, is? 

If you are thinking that it is time to push your waka out whilst reading this, then good on you. Here are six pieces of advice I would give you, based on many years of working in growing businesses and innovation;

1. Innovate not for innovation sake, but from, or of a place of necessity - what I mean by that is, find the big problems, the big societal or gnarly little challenges to solve. Find the things to solve that need to be solved, not could be solved.
2. Fall in love with a problem - if you're not in love with the problem, you'll find it hard to continue keeping your energy high, keeping the focus and convincing others you care. On the other hand, if you fall in love with the problem, your energy will flow, and you'll find it easier to convince, sell, solve and evolve. Falling in love with the problem is closely related to innovating from necessity. The reason being, if you feel that it's necessary to make a change or create a new world based on a problem that you see, or more importantly, you feel, or you see others feel, then this is a strong place for creativity and innovation.

1. Validate the problem before you do anything else - what you find when you validate the problem, through surveying communities or potential people that have the problem or challenge, you move from opinion to data. Too often, in search of ‘innovation’, we see domain experts or people not open to being challenged or closed in their thinking. Validating the problem before you do anything else enables you to get clear on the problem, enables you to weed out the problems that aren't of value to the market segment you want to appeal to. Validation also gives you a solid foundation to build from, once clear on the general direction of the problem statement you're trying to solve.

1. Be very clear on who feels the problem and who's motivated to solve it - are they prepared to pay money? Are they prepared to fund? Are they prepared to invest in you and your idea? Will your community see that your problem is a problem and that your solution is a solution? Will they be motivated to buy, use, and promote?
2. Validate the solution before building anything - before you build anything, commit to paper or low-fidelity solutioning, and validate that the concept works. By going low-fidelity in your solutioning, you can create faster cycle times, be more responsive. Next, creating digital mock-ups that people can see, touch, feel, taste and smell before building anything enables you to create rapid learning cycles quickly and rapidly. These mock-ups give you huge insight at low cost before you commit more significant resources to the development, and finally, 

1. Find your tribe - what we observed at Hack Tāmaki was that people revelled in diversity but were inspired by finding ’their tribe’. Each of the participants had something to give and receive - there was natural reciprocity. Each of them had a special skill or capability, something unique about them that they could offer. So, my final bit of advice is to find your tribe. Find those people that build you up, and support you. Find the people that want you to succeed and ‘do’. 

Finally, my wero, or challenge, to anyone reading this who feels that they are excluded from the system, who feels that there is not fairness and equity in the things they face, day-in, day-out, is don't play in a biased system. Don’t play in a system that demonstrates bias. Rather, create your own system and path!

You have the skills and capability to learn and to grow. Take a risk. Push your waka out, aim to be a job-creator, and chart a course to the world you want to see.

Kei runga noa atu | onwards and upwards and all my very best in your next [ad]venture. ^KT