TenforTen – our tenth anniversary podcast series

Over the ten years since CSI was founded, we have been privileged to work with many of the people who are making a difference in Aotearoa – and to kōrero with many more. To celebrate our tenth birthday, we are producing a podcast series, TenforTen, ten conversations that capture some of their wisdom, their perspective on our society, their mahi, and their hopes for the future.

Our first podcast features Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell talking to our associate and communications adviser, Robin Hickman. Te Aorangi is also a CSI associate in addition to being General Manager of Haemata, a Māori language, education and capability-building consultancy, and a board member of BayTrust.

Te Aorangi talks about being home-schooled in te reo. He then graduated from Waikato University with Bachelor of Management Studies (Hons), and the Te Wānanga o Aotearoa Masters in Māori Language Excellence programme. Te Aorangi’s early ambition was to work in international finance, a potentially lucrative career, but not one where his te reo and knowledge of te ao Māori would be valued. He decided he wanted to put his commitment to the revitalisation of te reo at the centre of his life, so he changed his focus from international money markets and joined the family business, Haemata.

Alongside his Haemata work, Te Aorangi saw a need for youth voices and te ao Māori perspectives in governance, so qualified as a Chartered Member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors. Watch and listen to the interview below or on spotify here.

Chief Children's Commissioner Dr Claire Achmad is a recognised advocate for children in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, having worked in a wide range of areas relating to children's rights, including from legal, policy and practice perspectives. Claire was appointed as the Deputy Chair of the Children and Young People's Commission, Mana Mokopuna, from 01 July 2023, and from 01 November 2023 she took up the role of Chief Children's Commissioner and Chair of the Commission for a total term of five years.

Claire’s previous roles include Chief Executive Officer of Social Service Providers Te Pai Ora o Aotearoa, and child advocacy for World Vision Australia, UNICEF and Barnardos.

Claire holds a doctorate in international children’s rights law from Leiden University, the Netherlands, and has published internationally on a range of children's rights issues.

In this interview, Claire talks about growing up in West Auckland, how she became interested in human rights, and the career choices she has made. Watch and listen to the interview below or on spotify here.

Dan Gerrard is a leadership coach, mentor and facilitator, Dan is Programme Director at Leadership New Zealand, has his own leadership consultancy, Ngākau NZ and is an associate with the Centre for Social Impact.

Prior to setting up Ngākau, Dan held leadership roles in KiwiRail, Downer and Fulton Hogan. He started his career as a plant operator and labourer and draws on his ‘learning from the ground up’ experience to inform his approach to leadership development.

In this interview Dan shares about his struggles as a rangatahi, the influential people that changed his life path, and about his drive to be a great dad. Watch and listen to the interview below or on spotify here.

Qiane Matata-Sipu is founder and creator of the social impact movement, NUKU. NUKU amplifies Indigenous female change-makers, system shakers and leaders through audio podcasts, books, research and live events.

Born and raised in what she describes as ‘the coolest multi-cultural, village-metropolis of Māngere’, Qiane built NUKU based on her experience in journalism, photography and communications. In her profile on the NUKU website, Qiane says “Ihumātao is my home and I've been surrounded by mana wāhine all my life. My upbringing encouraged breaking barriers, there were no limitations. Storytelling was instilled in me from childhood. At 2, I recorded my first ever podcast on a cassette tape, interviewed by my Nan. That must have influenced my later profession as I grew up to be a journalist, photographer, visual artist and social activist.”

Qiane’s podcasts have formed the basis for a book, NUKU: Stories of 100 Indigenous. This showcases a wide range of voices and diverse representations of leadership, systems change and success. Watch and listen to the interview below or on spotify here.

Red Nicholson is Executive Director at The D*List, a disability-led social change organisation seeking to transform attitudes to disability in Aotearoa. His profile on the D*List website describes Red as ‘a long-suffering Warriors fan, recovering high school teacher, and proud disabled person. With a background in the education and creative sectors, Red’s work is driven by a vision for an equitable Aotearoa, underpinned by Te Tiriti, where all people are valued and resourced to live extraordinary lives.’

Born with cerebral palsy, Red recognised early in his life that many adults had low expectations of him. In an Auckland University alumnae interview, Red said ‘One of the funny things about living in a world that actively side-lines disabled people is that you convince yourself that you have to work even harder than your able-bodied peers to get the same access to employment, education, relationships and so on.’

After seven years teaching English and media studies at Onehunga High School, Red moved to Curative ‘a creative agency inspiring social change.’ Here Red was involved in a project with Te Kāhui Tika Tangata - NZ Human Rights Commission exploring attitudes towards disability. The outcome of that project identified a need for a vehicle for change, led by and for disability communities. The D*List was created, ‘a place for us to bask in disabled kinship, disabled joy. A place to remind us all that simply existing as a disabled person in an ableist world demands a level of radical self-acceptance.’ Watch and listen to the interview below or on spotify here.

Julia Arnott-Neenee and Eteroa Lafaele as young Pacific leaders have a shared vision; to create pathways for more Pacific people in technology. To support their mission, they founded Fibre Fale, a purpose-led collective to create pathways into technology for Pacific people, amplify representation of Pasefika in tech and grow the next wave of transformative industry leaders.

Julia and Eteroa bring impressive credentials to the task.

Eteroa built a successful tech career as a software engineer and developer evangelist. To help bridge the digital divide, she created a start-up, DigiTautua, to refurbish and distribute devices during Covid19 lockdowns. Recognition for her work includes a Prime Minister’s Award for STEM 2019, Young IT Professional of the Year 2021, ASB Good as Gold recipient and MacDiarmid Institute, Discovery recipient and Forbes 30 Under 30 for Social Impact.

Julia carved out an international career working in tech across Australia, the UK and the USA before returning home to Aotearoa in 2020. Since 2020, Julia has dedicated her career to service of Pacific communities and visibility of Pacific people in tech, serving on multiple boards and projects including the Digital Council for Aotearoa, Hi-Tech Trust, Middlemore Foundation, World Economic Forum Global Futures Council, Next Foundation Fellow, Pinnacle Inc.

When Eteroa and Julia met between Covid lockdowns in 2020, they discovered a shared passion for service to their communities, increasing digital equity and growing representation of Pacific people in tech.

Fibre Fale was born! Watch and listen to the interview below or on spotify here.

Shruthi Vijayakumar is a coach, facilitator and educator, supporting leaders committed to systemic change. While her family roots are Indian, Shruthi was born in Botswana. Her family immigrated to New Zealand when she was five. She developed an interest in social justice at an early age. As Head Girl at Mt Roskill Grammar, her organisation of the 40 Hour Famine fundraiser led to a trip to Cambodia to see World Vision prgrammes in action. This first-hand experience of poverty, and attempts to address it, had a profound impact on her.

After graduating from Auckland University, Shruthi joined the Boston Consulting Group but realised corporate consulting was not how she wanted to spend her life. Work in India with an education start-up at some of the poorest schools in the country was followed by an MBA at Oxford University. Since then, Shruthi has focused on working ‘at the intersection of education, the environment and transforming capitalism,’ addressing her concern about the current economic system ‘that focuses almost exclusively on growth and treats nature as an ‘externality’.

Shruthi is currently a participant in CSI’s Haumanu facilitation training programme. Watch and listen to the interview below or on spotify here.