Over two hundred youth gather at Orakei Marae for the first Indigenous Leadership Summit - Te Ara Moana.

Orakei Marae was filled with hundreds of young indigenous leaders this morning when Te Ara Moana opened it's very first summit in Aotearoa.

The programe for Te Ara Moana includes guests speakers Tamoko Ormsby and Waimirirangi Koopu-Stone from Pipiri Ki A Papatūānuku which aims to raise awareness around the impacts our everyday decisions have on Papatūānuku. Pipiri Ki A Papatūānuku recently nominated for the Trailblazer Award as part of the Zero Waste Hui 2018 and have created a powerful online movements around looking after our natural environment.

Herewini Jones is also a keynote speaker who will contribute his skills and expertise to the Te Ara Moana kaupapa.

The attendees will participate in interactive workshops, contribute to panel discussions and learn from indigenous leaders and peers.

Te Ara Moana is a youth lead initiative, designed, facilitated and evaluated by indigenous Maori rangatahi.

“The energy here is so strong today. Our youth are vibrant and passionate, and I am excited to see how they can use this summit to grow and develop their own knowledge base to take that back to their whanau and their hapu”, said Veeshayne Patuwai, Director of the Urutapu Tamāhine Programme.

"We want to celebrate our talented indigenous leaders of Aotearoa. We have such a huge range of cultures here from the Pacific Islands, and all of our young people have significant contributions to make to our future", said Patuwai.

Throughout the two-day long summit, Te Ara Moana are holding creative workshops where attendees will be given the opportunity to add their voice and experience to creating impactful solutions to some of our most challenging issues. There are 5 key kaupapa that will be covered which are as follows:
1. Youth suicide
2. Diversity
3. Environment
4. Freedom from addiction
5. Cyber Bullying
The rangatahi are also involved in active workshops including spoken word, sustainable coastlines, wayfinding and Maori movement.
Te Ara moana is a Social Enterprise. All profits raised will be reinvested back into the Urutapu kaupapa, a young Māori Women's Leadership programe.

“Te Ara Moana was the brainchild of our Urutapu workshops. Our tamāhine wanted a space for indigenous young adults to come together, restore traditional knowledge, and learn how to use it to navigate through an increasingly difficult 21st century,” said Patuwai.

The tamāhine involved in the Urutapu programe have delivered a number of initiatives in their communities - from a traditional Maori arts community event in Moerewa, a performing arts event to raise funds for carvings in a school wharenui in Rodney, and most recently, the design and orchestration of the first youth led indigenous youth leadership summit, Te Ara Moana.

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