Tapuwae Roa brings pakihi Māori aspirations to life

In a move to grow the number of Māori startups in Aotearoa, Tapuwae Roa has launched today a series of regional wānanga to support rakahinonga Māori (entrepreneurs) in bringing their business ideas to life.

Facilitated by experienced business mentor, Saara Tawha (Ramaroa Ltd), the interactive one-day wānanga hopes to ignite the entrepreneurial spirit of participants while providing key tools and skills to progress their business ideas into reality.

"The Rakahinonga Roadshow has been created to activate momentum, by helping whānau explore their ideas," says Tawha who brings over four years’ experience working with Māori startups to the initiative through Kōkiri Māori Business Accelerator.

"It gets these ideas out of the heads of rakahinonga, puts them through their paces, and then challenges them to assess if their ideas warrant the work required to explore further."

Structured to provide a ‘kick start’ in progressing rakahinonga aspirations, the workshop not only provides participants with a foundation in business basics, but introduces helpful tools, frameworks, and services available to support participants along their entrepreneurial journey.

"We will use ideation tools alongside the pūkenga of our facilitators, to help whānau explore their business ideas further and provide them with skills so that they can better articulate their ideas and bring the right people on the journey with them."

Through the initiative, Tapuwae Roa hopes to help remove some of the barriers Māori experience when entering the entrepreneurial ecosystem and increase economic resilience within whānau Māori.

"We believe that by supporting aspiring pakihi and rakahinonga Māori to explore and accelerate their business potential, whānau can find pathways towards their own financial resilience and self-determination," says Te Pūoho Kātene, Kaihautū (Executive Director) of Tapuwae Roa.

The roadshow will launch with four wānanga throughout November, with the first taking place in Whāngarei on 4 November. A second series of roadshows is also planned for February 2024 and will include an online wānanga for those who cannot make it in person.

"Entrepreneurship is a tool to create freedom, solve the problems you care about, and create value on your own terms. In effect, entrepreneurship is the embodiment of tino rangatiratanga," says Tawha.

Places are limited; for more information, or to register, visit: www.tapuwaeroa.org/rakahinonga

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