Global Perspectives From the Edge – Deepening the Connection to Community and Culture
This webinar will bring you the latest evidence and practice unleashed at the World Community Development Conference in Darwin June 2023.
Our host Denise Bijoux will be joined by community development practitioners and experts from around the world.
With a strong conference emphasis on enabling indigenous-led development, the panellists will discuss what they have learned and share cutting edge wisdom from different parts of the globe on implications for community-led leadership and social change.
This is a great opportunity to reflect on some big emerging themes that impact on all our work:
Decolonising community development and enabling equity
What’s the work to be done to enable all communities to thrive and prosper? What frameworks, practices and approaches are helping transform systems, relationships, mindsets and wellbeing outcomes for people and place
Power, participation and voice
Complex dynamics and uncomfortable edges between mainstream and marginalised groups are present in all sectors of industry, community and society. Who has a voice, how is self determination enabled, which groups have power and which don’t and what helps change that?
Emerging from the unknown
How can communities thrive in the future amidst a COVID-19 landscape, climate change and disasters? What creative, radical and edgy responses are making a positive impact?
This webinar is free to attend – you’re welcome to add your team mates when you register too!
Speakers
Stephanie Harvey
CEO Community First Development, Australia
MBA, MAICD, JPACT
“I commit to leading with hope and optimism, with my vision and energy locked on to what life could be for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people ‘beyond the gap’. My motivation is that we all get to reach our potential. What we do at Community First Development works; it changes people’s lives – in the way they want it to change.”
Steph Harvey, a Bidjara woman from Qld, is one of Australia’s leading third sector executives with a career that spans government, community and the not-for-profit sectors. Steph is the CEO of Community First Development, a First Nations’ led development and research organisation that is committed to the “by community, for community” approach with self-determination at its core.
Steph also holds non-executive director roles with Australian Regional and Remote Community Services (ARRCS) and the Healing Foundation and is a judge for the Telstra Best of Business Awards.
Steph devotes considerable energy to her passion for the rights of vulnerable people. She is committed to social and economic equity and the right to self-determination for all people.
Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna’i
Edmund Hillary Fellow, Flying Geese Pro CEO, Aotearoa
“I just want to use indigenous frameworks that grow in the gardens of Pacific peoples. I want to celebrate our knowledge systems, cultural traditions and wisdom, to trade in the ancient currencies that value relationships and intergenerational reciprocity.”
After more than 20 years in journalism, creative arts and development, and working with the likes of the Oxfam, UN Women and UNDP, Faumuina could see that mainstream strategy frameworks were rigid, flawed, and resulted in poor outcomes.
Having spent more than a decade as an ocean voyager on traditional waka hourua, Faumuina knew the invaluable nature of navigators’ wayfinding approach and their unique leadership.
Uniting her voyaging and professional worlds, it became clear to Faumuina that so much of what wayfinding offered, was what was lacking from these frameworks.
Faumuina is delivering a keynote at the World Community Development Conference in Darwin on how Indigenous peoples can create frameworks drawing from their culture & the importance of lived experiences. The Wayfinding framework was developed by Faumuina under the guidance of master voyager and navigator Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr of Te Toki Voyaging Trust.
Rolande Paekau
Hapū Hāpori Engagement Coordinator for Raglan Naturally Community Trust
“I support strengthening and developing hapū aspirations for all our whānau in and around Whāingaroa, to ensured that our voices as mana whenua/mana moana are involved in decision-making processes within our community. I have strong whakapapa connections and relationships with my local iwi and hapū, with experience in hapū management and development.“
E ngā mana e ngā reo, e ngā matawaka ki ngā hau e wha tēnā koutou katoa
Ko wai au? I te taha o tōku māmā…
Ko Karioi te maunga, Ko Whāingaroa te moana ngūnguru te pō ngunguru te ao, Ko Te Tarata te awa, Ko Te Kopua te whenua, Ko Ngāti Tahinga, Tainui tōku iwi, Ko Te Paetoka, Ngāti Hounuku tōku hapū, Ko Poihākena te marae.
Ko Whareaitua rāua ko Te Kiriwera Paekau ōku tūpuna koroua nui. Ko Tumu rāua ko Te Kakahuruhuru Paekau ōku tūpuna, Ko Nellie Paekau tōku whaea. Ko Rolande Paekau ahau.
A single mum of four children, I raised my children in Whāingaroa upon returning home with my mum, Nellie Paekau in 2005. With all my children now young adults and living out their best lives around Aotearoa.
I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Iwi Environmental Management and Master’s Degree in Applied Indigenous Knowledge, and is about to undertake Professional Doctorate studies in Māori Advancement & Development and Indigenous Advancement & Development.
I have worked primarily in voluntary governance roles over the last fifteen plus years for local Māori Trust Boards that began at Poihākena marae. As well as a consultant, environmental practitioner, project manager and strategic planner.
I work in the Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana Act) Settlement spaces for Tainui o Tainui iwi and Tainui Awhiro Trust who has consisted of Ngāti Mahanga-Hourua, Ngāti Tamainupō and most recently Ngāti Whakamarurangi.
I recently filled the position of Hapū Hāpori Engagement Coordinator for Raglan Naturally Community Trust.
Nō reira, kua mutu āku kōrero mō tēnei wā, e ngā rau rangatira mā huri noa… Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.
Min Vette
General Manager Whanau Oranga – Ngati Porou Oranga, Aotearoa
Min grew up among both her mother’s people Ngā Paerangi of Kaiwhaiki marae Whanganui and her father’s people Ngāti Konohi of Whāngārā marae Gisborne.
Her understanding of the world has been shaped by her early and lifelong experiences in and around these two marae with extended whānau. Mātauranga – learning about ancestors, mahi – roles and responsibilities, manaaki – caring, hauora – hygiene, haumaru – safety and tiaki – support have all been a part of growing up around the marae.
Min’s early professional background started in the woolsheds, where she developed strong work ethics around being reliable, working as a team and pushing your potential, i.e. sweating!
After graduating from Waikato with a degree in Māori she worked for Iwi for ten years before moving into the public sector. She has held various senior roles at Southland DHB, and the Ministries of Education, Social Development and Oranga Tamariki. During which time she gained a master’s degree in management from Victoria.
Min has seen positive initiatives grown out of and inspired by community, whānau and hapū but sadly also the demise of these as a result of racism and not understanding te ao Māori. She’d like to support whānau and hapū led initiatives and contribute at a board level towards advice and decisions that help to keep whānau positive and motivated.
Yes We Can. Fund effectively, Change will happen
Wednesday March 1st 2023 10am – 11am
Changes in funding practice occurred during the first COVID 19 lockdown but many have not been sustained. However, many funders are now exploring alternative ways to fund that are relational, rather than transactional, and that more closely align with the values and practices required to build community capacity and enable collaboration.
There’s no evidence that traditional competitive funding models and practices produce better funding decisions or outcomes. But there is evidence that they actively undermine the potential for community-led change by creating competition and patch protection, and soak up a massive amount of time, resource and creativity that could be directed to building community strength and tackling issues.
Rather than being based on actual constraints, barriers to creating change are often due to historic practice and fear of risk. There’s also gatekeeper mindsets and a lack of insight or rigour to think critically about funding practices and ensure they’re well designed to support the outcomes (e.g., equity, collaboration, local leadership) that many funders desire.
In this webinar we will looked at how changes in funding practices can unlock greater funding effectiveness, providing examples from our panellists who are deeply embedded in the challenges with the funding system and new responses. Together they offer insights that will unlock the power that comes when communities and funders work together to realise their aspirations.
Resources
There has been some amazing progress and mahi in this area of late. Here are some links to useful resources for further reading and learning that were discussed in the webinar.
Be the Change, Funding and Equity (you can also find one-pager downloads on this page alongside the full report)
Funding for Change in Ōtepoti 2020
Reflections on Funding Youth Employment
Funding Fundamentals – Philanthropy New Zealand online course
Meet our speakers
Seumas Famtham (Ngāti Porou/Whakatōhea)
Executive Director, Todd foundation and author of Reflections on Funding Youth Employment
Seumas is the Executive Director at the Todd Foundation and current Chairperson at Philanthropy New Zealand.
Seumas has over 20 years experience working with youth and community-led initiatives in Aotearoa, and believes that with adequate resources and support – communities will solve most of their local challenges and maximise their own aspirations.
Blair Carpenter
DIA and co-ordinator of the Nelson/Tasman co-lab that brings funders and communities together in conversation about local projects and initiatives
Ko te Ūpoko o Tahumatā te mauka
Ko Ōkana te awa
Ko Wairewa te roto
Ko Uruao te waka
Ko Makō te whare tupuna
Ko Te Rōpūake te whare kai
Ko Kāti Irakehu, Kāti Makō kā hapū
Ko Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu kā iwi
Nō Wairewa ahau
Born in Ōtautahi – Christchurch and raised in Whakatū – Nelson by his parents of English and Maori heritage, Blair has worked in the social and community sectors for over 20 years. Spanning a number of sectors such as youth, aged care, disability and Kaupapa Maori among others. Blair has worked as a Community Advisor for the Department of Internal Affairs for the past 4 years. A significant focus of his work over the past few years has been to coordinate and strengthen the housing and homelessness sector in the region, establishing collaborative forums and working within Civil Defence to house a large number of homeless individuals during the Pandemic.
Blair is a strong collaborator, innovator and person-centred practitioner with a focus on supporting marginalised populations in our communities to thrive and flourish.
Based out of the DIA Nelson office, Blair is a co-developer of the Nelson Tasman Community Colabs, a multi-agency initiative focused on improving the impact of community led initiatives in the region.
Anna Parker
Anna Parker, Inspiring Communities team member and co-author of Be the Change, Funding and Equity
Supporting the growth of strong and resilient communities is at the heart of Anna’s mahi. Anna has diverse experience of grassroots community development – having worked on peace building efforts with indigenous women leaders in Bougainville (PNG) to activating the community-led vision for the Valley Project in North Dunedin.
Youth development is a particular passion – often Anna is called in to build processes with young people from the ground up – and to enhance the ways groups and organisations work with young people.
Anna is a reflective practitioner and a systems thinker committed to social justice. Anna thrives when working cross-culturally and enjoys supporting communities to navigate their journey with Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Currently Anna is director of Mātāwai Consultancy and supports a number of Otago based organisations to think strategically and grow their impact. Mātāwai offers facilitation, mentoring, strategic advice, research, Te Tiriti o Waitangi education, event and project management.
Originally from Ōtautahi/Christchurch, Anna has called Ōtepoti/Dunedin her family home for more than 10 years.
The power of place-based collaboration
Wednesday 19th October – Online Webinar
Tino rangatiratanga means hapū and iwi take a leading role. There are other emerging key ingredients that are enabling collaborative system stewardship and transformation at both local and national levels. We know that when those tasked with making change draw on the assets and strengths already in local places, including strong leadership, trusted relationships and diverse connections, the responses are incredibly successful. United by a common purpose, local places can organise solutions that enable an effective whole of systems response.
There’s growing respect for – and confidence within – local communities, hapū and iwi, who’ve shown how effectively they partner in social, environmental, and economic change. Embedding these ways of working into ‘business as usual’ will result in more effective responses to ongoing challenges.
In this webinar, we looked back to look forwards. By discussing how Māori customary tikanga and privilege can be recognised and not confined to the marae or alienated from the activities of everyday life and the highly relevant lessons learned over the past two years and articulated in Shaping the Future.
We explored some of the what – but more importantly how – to shift from the rhetoric of engaging with communities and Māori to applying an indigenous lens and community-led focus. Hosted by Christina Howard, and featuring Megan Courtney from Inspiring Communities, Anna Powell from Collaboration for Impact and Victor Walker, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, the discussion focuses on insights and tools here in Aotearoa and further afield to the learning and mahi in Australia and beyond.
Locally-led Matters – Harnessing the power of collaborative local leadership
The current Local Governance Review process provides an opportunity to think beyond current Council structures and mechanics. It’s an invitation to explore new roles and opportunities for joining up to make the most of everyone’s contributions to their local place.
Some questions:
- What’s the role of active citizenship? How do we move on from Councils decision making processes being more than just effective engagement to citizens and communities becoming wellbeing partners with Council?
- How can the principle of decentralisation also be embedded into the framing and approach of local government? It’s not just about power moving out of Wellington!
- What new roles for local government in strategic convening and facilitation?
Where are bright spots in collaborative local governance happening now? What are we learning so far? How can we spark more experimentation to see what else might work?
Megan Courtney of Inspiring Communities wrote about the ‘How not the Who’ when contributing to this journal article written 3 years ago. While this was well before the present Local Government review got underway the HOW remains very relevant, and if we could be so bold, contains valuable insights into the present debate – well worth a read.
Embracing Te Tiriti, Fostering Community
Exciting seismic shifts are happening in New Zealand’s cultural political landscape. The regular use of Te Reo, recognition of Te Ao Māori, and a growing understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi demonstrate a movement with the potential to radically re-orientate New Zealand to be a better place for all.
Community-led development (CLD) is one strand that can support this movement achieve effective and lasting change. Facilitated by Christina Howard, joined by David Hanna, Whananaki’s Pam Armstrong, Jo Brand from Te Rūnanga o Hokonui, and Tony Kake from Papakura Marae, this kōrero was just the beginning of sharing knowledge and experiences that enrichen community practice for us all.
We discussed the strengths of community-led development (CLD) and honouring Te Tiriti and Mātauranga Māori. How the strands that each hold are sometimes weaved together while at other times they can sit in parallel or alongside in place.
Every place and context is different. Based loosely on this article by Inspiring Communities’ David Hanna, alongside a piece from Pam Armstrong, the Strength of Whananaki, the webinar was a rich kōrero discussing practical examples, applying principles, progressing shared visions, using mechanisms such as mana enhancing agreements and determining each party’s contributions in this conversation, to help to build understanding of the concepts and practices that support strengthening Te Tiriti and CLD mahi.
Shaping the Future
During this rich interactive kōrero, we presented our newly released report, Shaping the Future.
This webinar discussed the report’s insights, implications, and recommendations drawn from the nearly 70 individuals and organisations we spoke with in May and June 2020. The report includes the local, regional, and national systems changes needed to support and strengthen community resilience in Aotearoa.
We offer this report as one of the many feathers needed for all places and people in Aotearoa to fly.
Little Engines that Can
Little Engines that Can – Local communities powering up Aotearoa.
With a focus on the Eastern Bay of Plenty’s experiences, this webinar explored some key elements and frameworks for getting traction across neighbouring communities to create shared visions and agendas, build community and social capital, and attract government co-investment into Iwi, Māori, and community-led projects.
This webinar covered:
Listen to Inspiring Communities’ Barbara MacLennan – David Cunliffe, Arihia Tuoro (Te Whakatōhea) – an experienced project manager and governor of Māori entities – and Aileen Lawrie, Chief Executive of Ōpōtiki District Council. These local leaders are among those who have helped drive local and regional progress through determined and disciplined cross-sector teamwork, and attention to shaping both economic and social development.
Included in this webinar was the story of Kawerau. You can watch this short ‘Our Inspiring Story’ video in the link provided below.
From Response to Recovery
Watch social innovation and systems-change pioneers Kate Cherrington, David Wilson and Inspiring Communities’ David Hanna in this rich kōrero into how we can shape a progressive future, together.
This webinar covered:
- How crisis fosters unity – what is happening at a local level (economic, social, health and environment)
- Weaving our strengths – leadership and strength-based frameworks and models
- Sharing power and taking risks – widening our gaze across local, regional, national, social and economic development~
- Moulding our new future – progressive systems, amplifying Te Tiriti partnerships, and building a new eco-system
- A rich panel discussion and interactive Q+A
Community Innovation Insights during COVID-19
As we navigate the rapidly changing world around us let’s catch a breath and take time to look at how we can apply what we’ve learned from community innovation approaches.
Listen as Inspiring Communities and Community Innovation experts Liz Weaver, Mark Cabaj and Jamie Gamble engage in a thought-provoking hour of insights and tools to keep at the cutting edge of our community-change kete.
This webinar covered:
- Adaptive leadership and collaborating effectively amidst the chaos navigating complex systems to work in a multi-level way
- Applying a learning lens and noticing change in this rapidly changing situation
- What we should consider doing more and less of to help our communities get through this together.
Connecting up Government – Building Local – Predator Free NZ
Making shifts to the system – weaving our connections up, down and across.
In this webinar, we unpacked new ways of approaching governance and action planning to tackle ambitious goals. Learn how guiding principles and a values-led approach helps navigate diversity and complexity to help push through the hard stuff.
Using Predator Free New Zealand 2050 as our case study, we shone a light on this leading example of how to decentralise funding, process and power, and how a collective participatory approach across local, regional and national systems is enabling doing things differently.
Take away how working in this way can be applied across other sectors and initiatives – including social, economic and cultural.