Celebrating resilience and achievement – Tupu Rangatahi Awards
Partners Porirua News
A warm Pacific welcome and a rousing haka bookended a special celebration of rangatahi at the inaugural Tupu Rangatahi Awards held in early December.
“The awards are all about us as a community defining what success looks like,” says John Lafaele, Contract Services Manager.
“These awards recognise the amazing resilience of rangatahi in our community. Resilience looks like getting out of bed, opening the door and saying, ‘I’m going to meet the world today’.”
The awards recognised the achievements of exceptional young people. John says the awards categories reinforce that life is about transformation, “it’s an ongoing journey – it’s about where you are going to go”.
Winner of the Mana Motuhake Award for Self Determination, Oriwia Te-Rangihaeata Kingi, spoke on behalf of the award recipients.
She says leaving school without a job was a humbling experience, “I loved school, but I couldn’t work with school – school just isn’t for everyone”.
She joined Capital Training Porirua in 2023, completed NCEA Level 1, and enrolled in a Level 3 Aviation course. Aspiring to be a flight attendant, she completed her Level 3 Certificate and is now studying for Level 4.
Oriwia says Partners Porirua helped her get her learner’s and restricted licences and encouraged her to enrol in the NZ School of Tourism.
“I went from someone that just wanted to stay at home to someone who wanted to do something with my life, I couldn’t have done this without Partners Porirua.”
Oriwia says she has now found her love for education and her social life, making a lot of new friends.
Partners Board of Trustee member Magele Maria Uluilelata congratulated the recipients saying that the amount of opportunity and choice young people are faced with these days can sometimes be paralysing. “Claim your name, your identity and enjoy who you are. We recognise you for showing up to decide you are going to hold the pen on the story that is yours.”
Partners General Manager, Salā Henry Samia says the awards celebration was the perfect opportunity to celebrate the incredible resilience and achievements of rangatahi in Porirua City. “These young individuals are not just our future; they are our present, making significant strides and overcoming barriers that many of us can only imagine.”
