Mia | Māngere

“Cool, my name is Mia, and Māngere is my home. I’ve been a long-standing member of this community from as long as I remember, and 2019 for me has been about re-establishing what it means to come from Māngere, who we are as a community, who we are as a people, and we’ve managed to do that really well.

The outlook that I have for 2020 for not only myself and my family, but also my community is that we start to see the fruits of collaboration in the community around arts, around culture, around Tino rangatiratanga, around what it truly means to be a diverse working community.

So, I was born and raised in Māngere. Born in Middlemore Hospital. Moved around South Auckland, did a little stint in the South Island, during the earthquake times. That was eye-opening, and what do I do in the community? I guess the main thing that I do in the community, I don’t have any title that I stand to, I do what I want, and what I want is to see our community thrive, be self-sustainable, and empowered in their own choices. So that looks like running events like cultural community events, participating in workshops, leading workshops and running conversations where people get to access who they are as a people, and expanding on that in business. I think Māngere is quite unique. We’re positioned in an area where we’re really close to the airport. The city isn’t too far away and we’re surrounded by wealth, and we’re also surrounded by poverty. When we grow up in the hood, and we all call Māngere the hood, when you grow up in the hood you can start to conform to ideas that society puts on you. So the small team that we have that I work with in the community, we are all about making sure that people understand whatever they want for life is possible, from knowing who they are, and that stems back to your culture, your ancestors, and the origins of your birth. 

We have a series of conversations around business and what it means to be cultural and taking advantage of that cultural currency. We’re about to launch a community kitchen co-op where budding entrepreneurs involved in food manufacturing and development, have the start-up costs, and the licensing and everything that they need to compete in the marketplace, which is quite a big thing. We are taking on crime and prevention in our youth, with a holistic viewpoint, instead of, you know, just lock ‘em up, chuck away the key. So many roll-outs this year in 2020, so really excited.”