 Tiwara. Paidaway. Pani konegau ways Kievana. BEIHTEA. Ellepu laughed programme. Koa Victoria Toko Inua. I'm from the United Nations Youth New Zealand and I run the Aotearoa Youth Declaration Conference. So it's an awesome honour to be here facilitating the youth panel today. So basically we'll just get them to introduce themselves, we'll run through a few questions and then we'll have some questions from the audience. So keep those to the end. Yeah awesome, introduce yourself Charlotte. Kia ora. So my name is Charlotte, I'm a Year 9 student at St Oran's and yeah I guess I'm just really keen on kind of getting involved in my community and just helping people out, yeah. Kia ora everybody. Ko Kanihi Parahare Toko Inua, my name's Kanihi. I'm a dissenter from Tuhoe and Te Atiawa. I'm passionate about my Māori culture and having an understanding that our culture, there are values there that youth can use, as well as that adults can use to better our future. Kia ora. Kapa kapa, how's everyone doing today? Can I get a Kia ora? Kia ora, kia ora. Ko Wateni Moana Campbell Toko Inua, a 12, a 12 i ki te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Pūna. Kia ora everyone, my name is Wateni Moana Campbell. I am a Year 12 student at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Pūna. My father's side I'm from Ngāti Pro, Ngāpuhi. I'm a mother's side I'm from Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Kahungunu. I'm really passionate about voicing my own opinions, voicing my own thoughts to make a betterment for my people and for my culture. Tēnā tātou. Kia ora. We'll start off, we'll go straight into the deep end. What are sort of the biggest challenges or sort of adversity that young people rangatahi face in Aotearoa today in our generation? So something that really affects me and really just kind of affects a lot of people in my class and in my school is mental illnesses and like it seems to me after talking to like my parents and talking to a lot of the kind of all the people that I know that it's something that seems to have sprung up so much more within my generation and yet there's still so much stigma around it. So I think that it's incredibly important to kind of get rid of that stigma and that until we do that we're never really going to be able to face the problem and really solve it. Same with mental health as well. The education systems that that's been a big topic this morning as I was listening and those education having stress on youth having to study at this time at the moment in study mode for our exams at the end of the year and it's the stress that those exams have on youth that can cause mental health and sometimes not having the sense of belonging to anything and sense of identity and that's where I believe it can be an issue for the development of our youth in the future. So I also believe that sense of belonging is very important to Te Rangatahi of today just because by having that sense of belonging I believe that young people are more confident into sharing their voices, sharing their thoughts about our everyday problems. So for me personally I come from a very big school with all it's 100 students from year one all the way up to year 13 and all of our subjects are all done in Te Reo Māori but and saying that our English isn't as strong as our Te Reo Māori so when it comes to voicing our opinions in English some of our students may not be as confident as they are but by having that sense of belonging I guess it helps them in sharing their voices and sharing their opinions so yeah I really agree on what has been said so far. Sort of segueing on from that. How do you voice your opinions? You're all under 18. How do you contribute to the development and growth of your community to Te Rangatahi in your community? What ways can you be an active citizen as a young person? Yeah I would really I think that one of the most powerful things that I have as a young girl in New Zealand would be my social media which is often kind of viewed as like a negative thing but for me it's been a massive way of how I can express my opinions and really express my viewpoints and I think that it's it's kind of incredible because so many people have access to it so you can you can find out so much about other people and learn so much about other people and it's it seems like a platform where it's not just one voice that's being heard it's all different voices which I think is really really good. I say for me my mother has a saying that you don't know what you don't know you should just give it a shot so my mother pretty much just throws me in whatever and then just hope for the best I guess and but I'm saying that I've been lucky enough to be a part of the Wellington City Council youth or the youth oh what is it the youth council I guess for Wellington City and there's been a major I guess amplifier for me to voice my own thoughts and opinions so yeah. Myself personally it's been my culture has allowed me to voice my opinions and what I believe in we have I've participated in speech competitions it's well known around New Zealand it's Manu Kōrero for secondary school students topics 10 sets of topics are given given out and each each youth whoever wants to participate in this contest are able to choose the top topic and talk about it and what they believe in with using the values of within Māori culture I've also been fortunate enough to participate in a youth forum that was held in Hawaii as well as in Japan and it's known as partnership for youth vision 2030 and that has also been another opportunity for myself to voice my opinion and what I believe in well for the betterment of the benefit to benefit our youth and that's those are the other news that I've been able to participate in awesome awesome and sort of going along with this theme the main ways for people on 18 to directly engage with government and local government is submissions essentially is the English written language by submissions the best way for young people to be engaging or is social media forums what ways can young people engage and how can governance bodies engage better and recognize different forms of engagement with young people you can think about it you know that is it's really important because I know I'm part of youth council as well the Hutt City one and something that we wanted to do was instead of just writing out a submission we wanted to put it in video format and I feel like if we could get this into kind of the way that our government works and that you can put it in video or you can put it in you know however you want I think it would kind of help people that might not be good at writing or that might not be good at speaking to kind of yeah get involved with that we have a scene in Māori meaning ka nohi ki te ka nohi and which translates face to face really and when you have a face to face conversation there is a sense that you have been heard right there directly in front of you and that that's that's something that it's better for I feel it's better for you to have is that face to face contact with government officials and and social media is also there it can get around however to being able to voice the opinion that I believe it's face to face I agree with what they said so currently in our Wellington City Youth Council one of our main priorities is being able to make create submissions and just making mock submissions to get their practice in before we have to actually submit a real submission to the council so that's been a really good opportunity for me just because not only do we get the opportunity to voice our opinions in written format we also state in our submission that we would like to head over to council to also give an oral submission as well so not only is it in written format but also being able to speak your voices in opinions so yeah yeah awesome um in terms of the challenge that we just discussed and the ways to engage with decision-making what is what is your youth vision for Olteraw for the world for the challenges that we face for climate change for an equity for inequalities what is your vision for Olteraw what would your ideal use even look like um yeah yeah I think um something that that I think is really awesome is that my generation and that the the youth generation um we've been proven to be a lot more accepting of different people so of different sexualities and genders and races and cultures um and I think that if we could further on this acceptance that we have and if we could put it into our police force and our government and our hospitals um and just totally break down those stereotypes that we're living with um I think they will be really awesome yeah um yes I agree I agree with that continuing on with that um I'd like to see that our country is connecting more with the indigenous cultures and how um indigenous people are quite close with the environment and that the environment telling us things but we're not we're too focused on on our normal life that we're not under not listening to the environment um with all the disasters that are happening that that's that that's an environment talking that's mother telling us that we need to wake up and that's what I believe that we need to connect with our indigenous people um to connect to be able to connect with our land uh and listen to it and um for yeah well for youth to be able to take that as well so I have a dream that one day um one day indigenous cultures uh will all be it'll be the normal I guess to foster and promote indigenous cultures right here in Aotearoa I have a dream that one day rangatahi will be confident and to sharing their voices sharing the opinions because uh as I say in goes uh kumata ngarangatira moapu whua are the leaders for tomorrow so I think it's a really important thing that uh we learn uh to voice our thoughts and opinions right now uh for the betterment for our absolutely absolutely um in terms of being involved for our young people to be involved in these and facing these challenges and this is very relevant for everyone here how what's the best way to engage with young people how do you know when you're meaningfully involved when you're valued when you're legitimised in any decision-making process big question um yeah I know like I went to an event um just a couple weeks ago um and I know that the youth minister for New Zealand was there um and it was amazing um and he came up and talked to us as a group after that and instead of just coming and talking to us and just speaking to us he actually asked us he was like well well what do you guys want and what do you guys want to see um and I think I was taken back because that was one of the first time when speaking to like a high up person and when speaking to a government person that they'd actually been interested in what we had to say and actually listened without just kind of blabbing stuff at us um so yeah I would I don't I don't know if that answers your question but I think um nah it is it's important to actually ask questions not just as a formality but to actually want want to know the answer and to actually listen to the answer I absolutely agree with that and that goes back to to to what I was saying about kanohi ki te kanohi face to face and being eye to eye uh having that sense that we're on the same level and that adults are listening to the youth however that youth uh adults can discipline the youth however and when there's that one level that we are all on it's more understanding between both um the adult and and the youth and that's and yeah eye to eye having that on the same platform and not having one up higher um that's what I I believe here uh yeah so I'm also going off of that um I'm lucky enough to be uh one of 12 members to be in Minister Chris Hipkins youth advisory group um and it's been a really amazing journey because um as we share our thoughts it feels like it's actually being listened to like genuinely listened to by other adults and by the people who come into our meetings and it's not just something to tick a box I guess that oh yeah we've we've spoken to rangata we've spoken to you if you'll tick the box no it's actually like they come they really listen and they really implement our thoughts uh into the process of our education system so yeah I guess that's what rangata who really look for is somebody who's actually listening not just there to tick a box oh and also we don't like just sitting around listening to people we like games as well so if you yeah and lollies um awesome we've got about five minutes maybe two questions from the audience put it out there first and first serve maybe oh oh thanks very much guys cura my name is Richard Osmiston from the New Zealand Institute of Resource Based Economics the future that we are proposing has no money in it no currency everything is free and everything is voluntary and one of the comebacks that we get is that nobody will volunteer to do anything in adults we see plenty of volunteering in New Zealand I mean it blows us away how much volunteering is but it's very difficult to get a representative sample from younger people the people the young people my kids their friends etc that surround us of course they're all in my kind of bubble so they're all super positive in a in a future society that supports us that is not predatory that is not exploiting where we are all on the same page as we're all human beings at the end of the day do you think that yourselves and your friends and school school colleagues and everything would they volunteer for a society that supports them because there isn't going to be an external reward it's just going to be is it worth doing it would you volunteer for a society that supports you so yeah a good question I guess just going off of what Charlotte said about eliminating that stigma so I think that part of the reason that young people aren't volunteering enough is because that it's seen to not be as cool as sitting at home playing the piece for fortnight for whatever you know fortnight so I guess that's that's part of the that's part of the problem and it is an ongoing process that we want to normalise I guess just I guess eliminate that stigma of it not being cool because it is it is pretty cool to volunteer for that is the coolest thing so yeah I'm just going to stop talking now I see that oh what comes to mind with that question is that in Māori we have a proverb they nakute raurau, naute raurau kaurai te iwi which is me translates with my basket and your basket the people will live and youth now there's a barrier there that they believe that they are entitled to everything and anything however that when you are when you are giving yourself to to an organisation to to something that will benefit the future of others that's something that we will need to be delivered within us that's all yeah um yeah I would say from my experience volunteering as a young person um it's a weird kind of level to stand on because you're not an employee you're not working for them I guess um but then you don't have the same respect as being a customer so you're on this weird level where it's like and particularly being a young person it's like you don't know where you stand and some people don't treat you very well so I think if you want to get more young people into volunteering it needs to start with really respecting the volunteers that we have and treating them not less because they're not being paid but actually I think you should kind of treat them better because they're taking it out of their time without that thing of just like wanting money I guess okay one question and it'll have to be like three words is a question yeah yell it out so when you guys look into your future lives um with climate change being the backdrop of it all what do you see good question um yeah I mean to be honest I don't know a huge amount about climate change but um kind of from a young person's perspective I think um we're we're put in a hard mindset because on one hand you've got um like really cheap clothes and all the kind of fashionable clothes I guess um I made in sweatshops and seem to be unsustainable um so on one hand um you're kind of like yeah well I want to be I want to be good for the environment um so then I won't use these clothes but then on the other hand it's like but those are the nice clothes um so I think um and that's not true because there are so many amazing clothing brands that are so supportive of the environment and I think it's a mindset shift that we need to have among young people um and that's something that we all need to work on um but yeah um we'll wrap it up there I think I'd like to leave the audience with with a whakatoki quickly um Hewaka Ekenawa a canoe which we're all in with no exception and that means that young people in that canoe too we uh part of the paddling we're part of driving to the direction so we need to be there at the table our ideas and um visions need to be valued as equally as anyone else's at that table and that's the only way forward that we're going to be able to take on these challenges like climate change is that if we're there we're respected and we're legitimised I think we've all echoed that quite well today and I hope that you've been able to take that on board as well so yeah kia ora thank you