- He pokeke a Uenuku e tu ai, he tapui tamaka e tau ai Tutumaiao Parikarangaranga, e karanga atu nei. Nau mai, hou mai, ahu mai ki ta tatou hui. This week on the Hui — It's tipped to be billion-dollar business in Aotearoa by 2026. And Maori and the gaming and tech industry are pushing rangatahi to get in the game. - Now is the best time to start telling our stories on the digital platform. - Plus we catch up with the CEO of Te Aka Whai Ora — the Maori Health Authority, Riana Manuel, on their one-year anniversary. - Because like with all new things, you have to learn to walk before you can run. And it would be fair to say that we're walking. - Yeah. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023 Nga mate o te wa, haere i te kawa tuainuku, haere i te kawa tuairangi. Haere mai, haere. Huri tu mai ki a tatou kei te pito ora. Tihewa Mauriora. And welcome back to The Hui. The rapidly growing gaming sector in Aotearoa is forecast to be our next billion-dollar industry. It's already boosting our GDP by $400 million. But with Maori making up less than 5% of the workforce, there's a push underway to show rangatahi what a digital career might look like. Ruwani Pereira has this report on gaming's boom time and what's being done to encourage gamers to turn fun on a console into a career. - Getting to takaro with technology. These rangatahi are getting their first taste of making a 3D game animation in Digital Natives Academy in Rotorua. - By the end of the day, I can grab folder, send it to your kaiako, and hello! - The not-for-profit wants to encourage youth who might not have access to tech tools to play, create and develop their own online worlds in the hope it could change their future. The ingenuity coming out of Aotearoa's gaming and tech world earned $407 million in the past year and employed a thousand people. It's tipped to generate a billion dollars by 2026, and Maori game developers want rangatahi to get a piece of the action. - I talked to a lot of tamariki and rangatahi, and I explained to them my journey and how I got into gaming and then tell them what they can do to achieve. And for them, they're just like, 'We didn't know,' you know, 'Can we do that?' - Maru Nihoniho been paving the way for local talent as one of Aotearoa's leading game designers and developers. Her game, Guardian Maya, combines the mythical with futuristic sci-fi and puts te ao Maori on the world stage. - I used to think to myself, 'How cool would it be if there was a Maori character that I could play?' You know, it's like seeing myself reflected back through a game. - There's an appetite for Indigenous content worldwide, and Maru says there's no better time for Maori to tell authentic stories that can't be made anywhere else in the world. - So when you look at the game and you see a tamoko on one of our characters, it is a true representation of that tamoko. We've got Maori weaponry and everything that's all around our culture. - And the inspiration for our video games can come from anywhere. A visit to the windswept Tairoa headlands overlooking the Otago Peninsula sparked the idea for Lisa Blakie's game, Toroa. - It's not really like a typical, I guess, what people think of when they think of a video game. So it's a relaxing flight game where you play as a toroa, or an albatross, and so it's primarily based on flight and flying. But you're also being told a story that is based in te ao Maori. - I feel like it's quite soothing. - Yeah, yeah. - There's no, like, crazy noises or sound effects. - Yeah. So all of it is kind of linked towards, yeah, just feeling chill and relaxed and having a story told to you as well. - Still in development, Toroa is set to be launched next year and has given Lisa a deeper connection to her culture. - I think that games have been the biggest reason for me becoming closer to my whakapapa and just, yeah, everything to do with te ao Maori, and it's just really cool having two things that I love, you know, as my day-to-day mahi. - It's about exposing rangatahi to the very real possibility of making gaming their day-to-day mahi, going beyond playing games to creating their own. So you're into gaming, but did you ever think you could make your own game? - I don't think any of us ever thought that we would be able to do this as a job, no. - It's like the map of the kura. Remember, we were making it. So those dudes were making assets. - Once a week, 15-year-old Ratana Kahukura and his classmates from Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Otepoti get hands-on experience in different aspects of video gaming. - It's a good opportunity for us, especially since it's really been my thing since I was young — playing games, making games. - What are these shapes here? - It's not shapes. It's scorestreaks. - Scorestreaks? - Yeah. - What have you got in mind for scorestreaks? What's number one? - It's a first for Dunedin's only Maori immersion school for years 9 to 13 set up by software designer Aaron Alexander. - Full disclosure, I don't really mind if they don't want to be game developers. I just want to sort of harp on the lesson of, we have computers; we have the internet. Use it, use it, make money, make businesses, get a piece of it. In whatever shape that takes, yeah. - You volunteer your own time taking time out of your own business, Aaron. What do you get out of it? - Sometimes it can feel like you're just a dork in a dark room for 12 hours, kind of toiling away on something. I just sort I'd want to do something for the kids that I wish I could add. So what does this indicate? - It's your ammo. - Yeah, and why is there another gun there? - Because Aaron knows, as a kid growing up in Kaikohe, he was never offered these opportunities. - It was a sanctuary for sure — Just being able to go home and play some games and getting immersed and all that, and it probably kept me out of a few situations. Yeah. - Taikawa Tamati-Ellife is part of the Centre of Digital Excellence, or CODE, based in Otepoti. He says the industry is crying out to get more Maori into the workforce. - I think it's a boom time for Maori developers purely because we have something so unique to us. We're so good at storytelling that the world hasn't seen. It's something that doesn't exist in our current market yet. - But the need for change is growing. Tech Tamaki is an initiative run by Tataki Auckland Unlimited where 350 Maori and Pasifika students from across high schools in Tamaki Makaurau get to meet tech employers. - Until you see someone else doing it, it doesn't really become real. And if you see people that look like you doing it, you're like, 'Man, I can probably do that as well.' - With fewer than 5% of Maori employed in the gaming and tech sector, it's vital to show rangatahi the many different career opportunities there are — jobs which pay big bucks and don't require top grades. Are you proof that gamers don't need to be really good at maths? - You don't need to be good at maths; don't need to be good at art. There are heaps of different pathways in games, and writing is just one of the many. I just want more, like, rangatahi to know that this is a viable, you know, career, but also, like, an accessible hobby. It's something that you can play with and just, like, have a tutu with on the weekend as well. - But the biggest barrier for whanau comes down to money. While consoles are relatively inexpensive, the cost of a PC is beyond most budgets. - For an entry level computer, it's $1500. Even access to internet is a huge barrier for our whanau. But the money and the putea that could come from a career in games, I'm just imagining that being injected back into whanau to help uplift them. - Part of Taikawa's job is to ensure the games they fund don't exploit Maori culture. - We have a lot of Maori and non-Maori developers wanting to use Maori content in games. It's just about nurturing that — so making sure they have the right partnerships with the right consultation that they are working with manawhenua. - Like the Australian-made Apex Legends video game. It's rebel warlord Mad Maggie is Maori. Their developers sought advice about Maggie's tamoko and cultural references, but Taikawas says many game makers don't do their homework. - ...says kia ora, by the way. - We've seen it in other games where that might be a bit wrong. They haven't done any consultation. If they're making money off those aesthetics in the game, is iwi being looked after? What does that look like? If you need Maori stuff in games, you know, go to Maori. Let them tell you what to do. (LAUGHS) - These young Maori digital animators are now on a full-time course and well on their way to realising a career in this booming industry. They're the latest crop to enter the gaming and tech space and hope more will follow in their digital footprints. - It needs to happen for our whanau or else we're going to be left behind. We'll see everyone else advance, and we will still be in our manual labour jobs. Our tupuna were never scared to traverse the sea, traverse the land. This is a new space for us to go and thrive in. - Nau mai a te ao hangarau hau. Stay with us. Te Aka Whai Ora - The Maori Health Authority has just turned 1. So what's been achieved in its first year? Hear from its CEO, Riana Manuel, after the break. - Hoki mai ano ki ta tatou hui, he korero te kai, he hauora te hai. Te Aka Whai Ora — The Maori Health Authority reached its first anniversary on Saturday. Established to lead and monitor transformational change in the way the entire health system responds to the health and wellbeing of Maori, it's a political target for derision and potential disestablishment after this year's election. I sat down with the CEO, Riana Manuel, to discuss the challenges Te Aka Whai Ora faces and what it's achieved in its first year. As you know, there's been a lot of criticism about Te Aka Whai Ora. And I just wanted to start with what it's like to hear people constantly talking about Te Aka Whai Ora and wanting to get rid of it and how you deal with that and how the organisation can deal with it. - The thing that I focus on mostly is that everybody is really passionate about health, and they want to see change. And people will have questions about is adding another organisation going to bring about change? So I understand people's apprehension, but the best thing we can do is do the best job possible to move those stats. - Do you understand the hesitation or not? Because it seems to me that people, actually, when they say things like 'We don't need another organisation,' they actually don't understand what this is about. - No, and I think that's the point. We've never had a Te Aka Whai Ora, so how could anybody know what it was going to look, feel or produce? But what I'm sure of is that the intention for us to be here is not just about the here and now. It's based on all of the work that's been done over decades by people much more learned, such as Ta Mason Durie, all of those hauora Maori leaders throughout the motu, the Heather Simpson review, and so on and so forth, Wai 2575. We don't need the evidence to tell us why we have to be here. We have to be here. - Why is, therefore, Te Aka Whai Ora the best way to be able to achieve all those aspirations that the claimant groups talked about and Wai 2575? - I think that we have to also be clear that it won't be Te Aka Whai Ora alone. So I fully acknowledge that we have an important role here. But the development of Iwi Maori partnership boards — they are part of that evolution, part of Pae Ora. They will bring about the voice of hapu iwi at a really local level and make sure that the system is cognisant of that in a way that it's never been before. - There's an audience — when they hear people talking about iwi partnership boards, it raises that ugly head of co-governance and the view that some people have of co-governance. Why is an iwi partnership board so critical? Why is an iwi partnership well going to be helpful in trying to address the real health issues that New Zealand has now? - Because services shouldn't be developed at the centre. Services that our people need on the ground need to be developed in the kainga as close as possible to where they are needed. That means iwi hapu are going to be the best voices to bring those aspirations forward, and that's including whanau voice, because I don't want to sort of downplay the fact that yes, we've got iwi and hapu, but we also have whaikaha. We also have our tangata whaiora. There are many different voices — our rainbow community — who need to be at the centre and be able to locally develop, design and deliver those services, make sure they're really well, regionally coordinated. And then our job at the national centre is to enable it. - What about the argument that people have though? So for instance, I remember the National Party when they first talked about getting rid of Te Aka Whai Ora. They talked about, 'Actually we should just resource iwi to do this on the—' you know, these big bureaucracies in iwis that potentially could do this. Why isn't that a better solution in your view? - Well, I think the point of iwi Maori partnership boards is really to bring that to the party as well. So it's not saying that establishing Te Aka Whai Ora and making sure that we're here is going to be the only way. Iwi have to have a really big play and nudge at what will be the pae ora of the future. So I don't think this is about an and/or. It is about an and/and discovery. But for the here and now, to hold the system to account, to monitor the system for the hauora outcomes that we need, then Te Aka Whai Ora has a place at that table to make sure that we push co-commissioning opportunities and provide higher investment into places like Puhoro STEM academies, the Pitomata scholarships, the development of a new Maori workforce. These are things that we can do in the here and now as we develop up those platforms to be able to push out into our communities. - And I do want to delve into those because I want to understand why they're so critical. But it's the first year anniversary. - Yeah, for sure. - And you would have gone in— (CHUCKLES) You would have come into this role with expectations of yourself... - For sure. - ...and your own aspirations in the role, so let's talk about that. What's been the most challenging part? Is it the politicians and the media and all that talk about what they want to do, or is it other things? - No. So it's not it's not any of those things. I think what's been really interesting for me is that I come from a really small town, a village really, because there's not a township in there. For me, one of the biggest challenges is being away from my family, from the centre, because you haven't got that kind of community or village right around you. But I think, equally, they're what give me strength in the position because I know they're right there with me at all times. So, you know, it's a distance thing, and it's getting used to a new system. For me, people are people. Developing relationships is something that I love to do. It doesn't matter whether you're a politician or a provider or Te Whatu Ora, or Manatu Hauora, for that matter. My job is to create really good relationships which lead to great opportunities, and that's something that I'm really enjoying doing. - There would have been challenges, though. I mean, just standing things up in the first year would have been a challenge in and of itself. What have been the real issues that you've had to deal with, the stumbling blocks that you've had to work through to be able to get to the end of the first anniversary? - Well, remember, there wasn't an organisation to speak of when we started, so as of the 1st of July 2022, we had our board and we had myself. That was the total sum of formal arrangements for Te Aka Whai Ora. So the first and biggest challenge has been establishing the people we needed on the ground to do the work. We've been so lucky to work across all of our district health— former district health boards to bring the people across to us. We've employed people from across the sector and from outside of the normal sectors. You know, standing the organisation up, getting us ready for the jobs that we had to do. And there are a number of jobs under the Pae Ora legislation that we are responsible for. So doing those things, doing them well — that's going to take a little bit of time, because like with all new things, you have to learn to walk before you can run. And it would be fair to say that we're walking. - Yeah. Isn't there a requirement, though, that you kind of have to— it feels like you almost have to walk and run at the same time, because you've got these mounting inequity issues that you have to deal with— and look at what's happening in the media recently— and other things about what's happening with trying to address some of those inequities now. So you've had to do that as well at the same time, stand up an organisation. How do you do that, and are you effectively doing it? - Yes. So yes, we're definitely doing it. We've stood the organisation up; we've done the jobs that we were meant to do, ie, we've commissioned, we've co-commissioned. In fact, we've done probably more of those things than we thought we were going to achieve in the first year. We've set up the frameworks, or the monitoring frameworks, the outcomes for commissioning frameworks. We've helped to plan and write the strategies that are essential. And I know people will be thinking plans and strategies aren't everything, but they give us the planning that we require to know where we're going and do the job that we've got to do. - So let's talk about outcomes then. Are you achieving outcomes now that are helping? In terms of the inequities within the system, inequities for Maori in health, are you achieving those now, and if so, how? - So I believe that we will over time. To say that we've achieved it all the way through — no way. It's taken us 182 years to get to this position in terms of health outcomes. We've got a lot to work through, but nonetheless, we're already seeing some of the signals, or the indicators starting to move and change. We know that with really intensive investment into immunisation, for instance, that we can see a very slight move in that particular area. We want to improve on that over time. We know that we're investing in our young people and our workforce. That will take some time to show the real benefits. But we also know that if we were to keep 100% of the people who start in tertiary education programs and get them all the way through, we would literally increase our workforce just by that alone. That's without even increasing the numbers of placements that are currently there. So there's a whole range of things that we've got to do, and it's going to take some time. And I'd love to say that in our first year we did it all, but we can't say that. It would be disingenuous of us to say that. What I can say is we've had a damn good go at it, and we'll continue to work hard to make sure that we push as much of that commissioning opportunity out, get as much of that workforce dream realised and put those pou in place to improve the outcome of our workforce. Because just to note that the health workforce is doing it tough at the moment. You know, we've had a rough couple of years. I know that from personal experience, and we've got to make sure that we don't just rely on the workforce we have here and now. We have to be future-facing. We've got to develop our own workforce so that we're not left in a position where we fall short again. And just to make that point, when I graduated three decades ago as a registered nurse, I made up 5.5% of the nursing workforce. Today we make up about 7.5% of the nursing workforce. In three decades, we've nudged it by 2%. And that's not good enough. So that requires a plan. It requires commitment, funding, intent and an understanding of why we don't make it through those tertiary programs. We need to lobby for the regulators to let us, get the placements in those community providers, including our kaupapa Maori providers. And we need to make sure that we grow that workforce purposeful for the future. - Taro kau iho ana — more with Riana Manuel and a look at when expect Maori health inequities to improve. - E haere tonu ana nga korero a te hui. In part two of our interview with Riana Manuel, the CEO of Te Aka Whai Ora— the Maori Health Authority, we discuss when the current inequities for Maori in the health system will be substantively addressed and what it will achieve before its second anniversary in 2024. I want to pick up on that point around future workforce because that's not something you can do alone. And you mentioned earlier that you have to work with others, but how do you do that when we have the education system that we have and the failure of the education system actually for our people, for our tamariki — so how do you do that? What is the direct influence that Te Aka Whai Ora can do there? - One of the most troublesome things I think about health outcomes often is that it is not health that will fix them. It is the social determinants and all of those people and agencies that are involved in that mechanism. So we are really reliant on working and having close working relationships to figure out how we can all play a part and what is our part. I think working in silos in isolation has to be done away with. My sense is that if there's one really amazing thing we could do as Te Aka Whai Ora in terms of the education or workforce development is to work with all the agencies that will have effect. That means making sure that our students have got the kind of money that they need for pastoral care, making sure that they've kind of got the kind of support that they need when they're in and when they're in placement and when they go out into the system thereafter. Making sure that they've got all of the childcare facilities that they require. Because often for our midwives, our nurses, our doctors, you're talking about a group of professionals that are trying to train, trying to work, trying to look after families, and with heavy responsibilities back to their communities, they can't do it alone. - Isn't that the arguments that the opponents to Te Aka Whai Ora are making? What they're saying is that actually we can do this more effectively without having essentially another bureaucracy in the middle. It allows us to focus on those communities of need, those sectors, those areas that you've talked about that need to be developed — the future workforce and that kind of thing. What's your response to that? - So it's all fair to say that those are the things you need, but you need somebody there to navigate those spaces. And I would argue that's one of the things that Te Aka Whai Ora can be and is currently doing. The work we're starting to do with ACC, with Oranga Tamariki, with all of the other agencies— MSD— these are great opportunities to make sure that not only are we working toward what is best for health, but we're making sure that we acknowledge that health outcomes will be not moved by us alone, but with all of our whanau intact. So when we talk about the waka hourua and the journey that we're on, Te Pae Tawhiti, there's a reason why we need all of the, you know— and Matua Hotu made this clear to us last year. You know, you don't go on a journey on your own. You do have a fleet. We require the whole fleet to be on hand. - You talked about the 182-year history, and we've discussed a little bit about the one-year anniversary of Te Aka Whai Ora. How long does Te Aka Whai Ora need? How long do we need to wait until we've addressed the significant issues and inequities that Maori face in the health system now? And this is rubber-hitting-the-road stuff here. And I know that's a hard question potentially to answer, but that's what people will want to know. - I'd love to put a number on it, but, you know, how could you? Like, how could you honestly say how long these things will take to repair? I'd love to tell you that in one year we could have fixed it. Well, that's not going to happen. I would hate to build expectation where we don't have kind of the facts, the data and the rigour to do it. But what I would say is that the point is that when in any journey you've got to take the first steps, we've done that. And already, we can start to see where the benefits will be in terms of outcomes for our people. - Will our aunties' experience in the health system and the inequities that they face now — will there be significant change for them and improvement in their experience in the next year to two years? - I believe so. By putting investment into screening opportunities, making sure that we capitalise on the things that will keep us well, those are the places in the spaces. Primary care, getting on things early, making sure we improve health literacy for our people — these are things that don't require necessarily systems or organisations, but actually giving the power back to our people. Those are opportunities that have yet to be forged. Digital and digital innovations — the way that we access services has changed, and COVID really nudged that as well. So making sure that we take up those opportunities are equally as important. We believe that the health system has to be accessed through hospitals and clinics and so on and so forth. We also believe that only clinicians can provide us the kind of care that we want. Yet, through COVID, we saw the emergence in a way that we'd never seen before of the kaimanaaki workforce — the acknowledgement that, actually, services get closer to people when we take it closer to their homes. So the closer, better, sooner logic really has to play out here. And that means exhausting all of these things and investing in them to make sure that we get that cut through. - Riana Manuel, hari huritau for Saturday. - CHUCKLES: Thank you. - Nga mihi nui ki a koe. - To all of us. - Thank you for your time. Kia kaha ra o tena mahi. - Oh, tena koe, Julian. - Kia ahatia, kua iri ake te kete korero a ta tatou hui ki te patu o te whare iaiainei. You'll find links to our stories on our Facebook and Twitter accounts — and at Newshub.co.nz. Next week, we will be live at the Stardome in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland with our Matariki-Puanga special celebrating te tau hou Maori — the Maori New Year. Until then, kia mau ki te turanga o Taputapuatea. Haumi e, hui e, taiki e. Captions by Jessie Puru. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023 - Ko te reo te take. - Na Te Puna Whakatongarewa Te Hui i tautoko.