Kua hinga te tōtara o Te Waonui a Tāne.
The tōtara in the great forest of Tane has fallen.

We pay tribute to Kingi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero IV, who passed away on 30 August. The Māori King was known for his diplomacy and his calls for unity, as well as strong advocacy for his people. His example of servant leadership stands as a beacon for how a leader can and should be.

Kia ora tātou,

I write this on Mātariki weekend, and I hope you are all enjoying the events that are occurring to celebrate this midwinter time of looking towards the stars, the turning of seasons, remembering the old stories and the people who have passed. A uniquely Aotearoa celebration with themes that echo in cultures all around the world.

Reflecting on our past year is something we are in the midst of, as we prepare our annual report for the year April 2023-March 2024. The summary of our mahi over the year always brings me pleasure. We do so much, with minimal financial and material resources! Pat yourselves on the back, we deserve it. Much of the work of compiling the report, both financial and narrative, is thanks to Sue Bingham our finance volunteer and Mathilde Le Goff, our current Board administrator intern. I say ‘current’ but am feeling very sad that in a week’s time that will no longer be true. Mathilde’s time with us has come to an end, and she will be travelling our beautiful country for a short while before returning to her studies in France. Merci beaucoup Mathilde, you have been fabulous to work with: I asked you to ‘be my brain’ while you were here, and that is what you have done – parfait!

Tēnā tātou katoa,

A different face for you in this edition of The Circular as I step in to kōrero for our President, Suzanne.

My name is Katie Thomas and I am the current Aspiring Board Member for NCWNZ. I have been involved in a number of network led organisations across the public sector for a decade now, all with a focus on working towards gender equality in Aoteroa New Zealand so playing a role within NCWNZ is a natural fit for me! It was a huge honour to be asked to put my name forward for this role in 2023 and I have been warmly welcomed into the fold by my fellow Board Members as well as the amazing volunteers from our Hubs and Branches that I have been able to meet and work with so far. I look forward to engaging with many more of our volunteers as we work together in the future.

Tēnā tātou katoa,

It is with deep regret that the Board has accepted Maulupeivao Dr Betty Ofe-Grant’s resignation as Vice President and Board member. She has decided that after three years serving NCWNZ, it is time for her to focus on other parts of her life and work.

Betty joined NCWNZ as a Board member in February 2021, when she was elected at the online Conference hosted by Southland. She has been an active Board member ever since, participating in a broad range of Board discussions and activities, including most people’s least favourite task – that of policy writing.

One of her passions is Diversity and Inclusion, particularly in workplaces. Betty ably formed and led the Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Accessibility committee who have been discussing policies and actions that we can take as an organisation to better welcome all people. She ran our online training sessions on gender equality, and diversity and inclusion for the Japanese Women’s Innovation Network (J-WIN), to great reviews. To do this, or two years in a row she pulled together a group of NCWNZ members to share their experiences, and Betty gave overviews of the issues from an Aotearoa New Zealand perspective. Little known fact: Betty can speak some Japanese, so she ‘wowed’ them every time!

Tēnā tātou katoa,

Every time I have sat down to write this kōrero for you, NCWNZ members, I have been pulled away by something else that arrives in my email! Often it is an invitation to be involved with a group or event that aligns with our kaupapa, which is a positive sign. An example is our recent invitation to meet with the Commission of Inquiry for COVID-19: lessons learnt. I attended this meeting with VP Betty Ofe-Grant, Raewyn Stone, and Rayane Al Faraj, and we shared the 2020 position paper that had input from members across NCWNZ. the organisation. It shows the worth of us collecting our stories at the time. The Inquiry members asked thoughtful questions and listened well to what we had to say. I personally was very proud of the input that we were able to give, representing a wide range of women in Aotearoa. This is our organisation’s purpose, so it felt good to be able to fulfil that purpose.

Tēnā tātou e hoa mā, ngā mihi ki a koutou.

It is Te Wiki o te Reo Māori – Māori Language Week coming up on 11-17 September, and I would encourage you all to learn some new kupu (words) and put them into practice during the week and beyond. Check out our NCWNZ social media, we will be acknowledging this special week.

Tēnā koutou e hoa mā,

Aotearoa has just celebrated Volunteer Week, so it seems appropriate to give a “Big Shout Out” to all our fabulous volunteers. We rely on our operational volunteers to run our organisation – the Board, administrators, finance and communications teams; and on our volunteers in the Parliamentary Watch Committee, Action Hubs and the Branches to do the advocacy mahi.

It is important that we all invest in our volunteers and be considering how we as an organisation can reward them: is it by providing mentoring, training, or experience? Or is it by providing collegiality and friendship, and/or the satisfaction of having impact in the community through our advocacy?

We should all be making it our mission to ensure that every volunteer who spends time working with us gains something that makes their lives better.

Tēnā tātou katoa,

To state the obvious, this is election year in Aotearoa. As such, the Action Hubs are switching gears from focusing on upcoming policy – which tends to slow down in the few months prior to an election – to encouraging people to use their democratic right to vote. A reminder that our position at NCWNZ is that we are “a-political”, meaning that we:

• Do NOT support one party more than another
• Do NOT tell anyone who to vote for
• DO support women to run as political candidates
• DO promote women’s issues as topics for election debates
• DO support people to exercise their democratic right to vote.

This year starts with the promise of moving onwards. It may not be any easier than past years, but as a country we are moving to a post-COVID phase, and as an organisation we are moving to a phase of embedding the new constitution that we spent so much time thinking about in the last two years. We will continue to work both internally and externally, as we progress our vision of a gender equal Aotearoa New Zealand.

This year, our International Women’s Day (IWD) theme will be “Access Equality,” tying in with the general theme of #embraceequality – look out for social media from our Comms team. We are grateful for MSD Te Korowai Whetū Social Cohesion funding to help us amplify the impact of IWD events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and we know that other events are being planned around ngā motu/the island. The NCWNZ Communications team have compiled a list of IWD events on our website (https://www.ncwnz.org.nz/iwd2023) and you can email them at [email protected] if you would like to add your event. Remember to send your stories after the events to [email protected], with photos, so we can celebrate in the next edition of The Circular.

The month of September was celebration month! Suffrage Day was celebrated around the two motu with many events. I myself was thrilled to be invited to the unveiling of the suffrage stained-glass window at the Whanganui District Council Chambers, commissioned by the Whanganui branch – kei te pai ō mahi. (See article on this commemorative window here.) It was a time when NCWNZ was out and about, visible and proud. Especially so at Parliament, when we were able to hold the postponed celebration for the 125th anniversary of NCWNZ’s founding. It was great to see so many members and guests there, with so many of those who have contributed over many years. Thank you to all who were involved in the organisation of the event, it was very special because of your efforts.