“The least I could do was succeed”: Oriwia Kingi

Enthusiastic, motivated, mature and high achieving are some of the ways to sum up Titahi Bay raised Oriwia Kingi. Words she never thought belonged to her as a young teenager struggling through school, getting into regular fights, dropping out and battling mental health issues.

By her own admission Oriwia started hanging out with the wrong people when she first went to Mana College. Struggling outside of school she couldn’t get away from it with taunting, rumours and provocation leading to frequent fights and being stood down from school.

“School had always been a great distraction, but my issues followed me at college, people got involved and that led to me getting into fights – something I’m not proud of now.”

Things got so bad she stopped going to school and formally withdrew before she could be suspended for a year. That was 2023 and the then Principal, John Murdoch, took her aside and suggested she withdrew rather than have a permanent suspension on her record.

“That man is the most genuine man I’ve met in my life, it was great advice, and I have a lot of respect for him.’ Oriwia says after leaving school she enrolled at Capital Training – where she’d done the odd course before. “I had a lot of Level 1 credits already but not in English and Math.”

She says that enrolling at Capital Training was the circuit breaker needed to get away from her old way of life and to start mixing with a different group of people.

“I didn’t want to be one of those Porirua kids that do nothing – I didn’t want a pity party on me, I didn’t want to be like that.”

Finding Partners Porirua

At about the same time Oriwia got involved with Partners Porirua. “The first thing I did with Partners Porirua was get my licence. I wanted to do that at college, but because of my bad record I couldn’t do it through school.” Oriwia promptly passed her learner’s licence and the restricted and she’ll be eligible to take her full licence test next year.”

This then led to working with the Youth Service team (in particular Dave Roche) at Partners Porirua. “The fact that in College I had a reputation as a naughty student that was stoned at school, that the teachers warned other kids to stay away from because I was a bad influence, did not matter at Partners Porirua. They didn’t care about my reputation, they just wanted to help. That made it quite easy and comfortable to be there. They didn’t look at me like I was a drop out with nothing going for me.”

Dave became a bit of a mentor to Oriwia. “We’d talk about what was going on in my life and the connections they had that could help me. They could see that I didn’t want to be someone who did nothing. They really helped get me to where I am now in life.”

And where she is now is pretty impressive!

Smashing goals

After leaving school in 2023 she did her Level 3 Certification in Travel in Tourism, last year she passed her Level 4 Aviation Certification and is now doing her Level 5 Diploma in Travel and Tourism Hospitality Management. Oriwia has aspirations to be a flight attendant and ultimately run an international make-up business.

She was also awarded the Partners Porirua Mana Motuhake Self Determination Award at the Tupu Rangatahi Awards in late 2024. Not bad for a girl who was told at school she was never going to be anyone or do anything.

With all the support she has received, Oriwia says the least she could do is succeed, and at just 18 years of age she’s doing just that. She has a new group of friends through her course and her part-time work and credits much of her success to the unwavering support of her family.

“My family tell me every day how proud they are of me. I love them and everything I do; I do for them. They are the only ones that stood by me through all my troubles, and when I lost all my friends. Some days I wasn’t even getting out of bed, and they would come through, pull the curtains, bring me breakfast in bed and sit down and talk to me. They have always believed in me – they knew I wasn’t really that person that was always getting in trouble.”

Oriwia says even now when the going gets tough on the course (like with the current accounting paper!) her family keep encouraging her to carry on.

Giving back

She is still involved with Partners Porirua, Dave is still there for her, but she’s also keen to give back to the community and be a positive role model for her younger sisters.

“I’ve recently joined Partners’ Voice of Rangatahi Group. It’s really cool we talk about things that rangatahi don’t really talk about like politics, education, community and things like that. Some rangatahi have great things to say but they don’t have the connections to be able to do that – this is an opportunity to be heard.”

“This is a chance for me to do the big sister thing and show my sisters the right path – sometimes I feel like I’ve let them down – I want to show them that if they can take a leap of faith, they can do what I’ve done.”

We think she’s nailed it – congrats Oriwia – you’re a true inspiration.