SBHS held a Māori leadership forum meeting on July 7th with many schools from all around Christchurch attending. This forum was designed to encourage the students involved to become confident and innovative Māori leaders with insightful knowledge and invaluable advice from our three guest speakers.  

Our first speaker was Hana O’Regan who was born and raised in Wellington. Hana studied at Victoria University and then secured a number of influential leadership roles including the Head of School position at CPIT and manager of the Māori Language and Indigenous Studies Unit. She has also been a member of the Māori Language Commission. Hana’s kōrero centred around her upbringing, her struggles as a fair skinned Māori who adored her language and culture and eventually her many triumphs and successes.

Our next speaker was Tim Bateman. He played rugby for many years from representing the Canterbury Crusaders, the Wellington Hurricanes and captaining the Māori All Blacks. Tim gave an inspirational kōrero about becoming a top athlete, he shared his thoughts on leadership and also encouraged us to explore what kind of leadership we wanted for ourselves and for our communities. He has now gone into a business career with his wife Laura and has returned to University to further extend his knowledge in this area.

Shelley Campbell was our third guest speaker. She is currently CEO of the Sir Peter Blake Trust and has the massive role and responsibility of implementing its leadership development and environmental programmes throughout the country. Shelley shared with us her story of how she made it into this position which included a lot of hard work and determination while countering numerous cases of discrimination. In one account, Sir Peter Blake’s own lifelong friend, when hearing Shelley had been appointed as CEO of his friend’s Trust, expressed directly to her that he did not appreciate or support Shelly being in that role ultimately because of her ethnicity and gender. This confronting moment did not stop Shelley from fulfilling her responsibilities and the results of her work not only proved Sir Peter Blake’s friend wrong, but he later apologised to her, and through her achievements she had earnt his respect and the admiration of many others. Shelly was awarded the Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader Award. She is the first person of Māori descent to win this award. An extraordinary achievement! Her kōrero to us was honest, thought provoking and inspirational.

This Forum gave the students involved exposure to highly successful Māori Leaders who shared real stories, advice, wisdom and genuine encouragement for our young men to pursue the height of their leadership dreams.

Mana Placid - Year 12