Empowering change: Leadership Network member advocating for community and culture
Leadership Network member Ezekiel Raui attributes his strong self-belief and deep sense of community responsibility to his upbringing in the Far North. Having experienced the challenges faced by underprivileged communities firsthand, he is now creating opportunities for the next generation to follow their dreams.
Ezekiel: "It’s about understanding our history, and understanding our connection."
Ezekiel Raui heads Te Rourou, the One New Zealand Foundation, where he has the opportunity to influence how one big corporation balances profit and purpose.
His work week can see him juggling board meetings with wānanga as he brings his knowledge of te ao Māori to the role.
Ezekiel describes having responsibility for the scope of the work done by the foundation, one of the largest of its type in the country, as "a privilege and, at times, a burden”.
He thinks it is important the foundation embarks on projects in an authentic way, and he challenges corporate decisionmakers to think beyond any box ticking exercise.
“I want them to ask themselves, how do we generate purpose purposely, not as an additional side note or a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programme? How do we do that hand in hand with the business offering to the customer?”
Case study one: Te Rourou is supporting schools and educators to create pathways through education into the technology sector, he says, a good philanthropic fit for a telecommunications company.
Ezekiel: "I didn’t realise I was poor until I was old enough to, one, understand what poor was and, two, be told that I was by someone else."
Ezekiel has a history of spearheading projects that deliver social good.
He grew up in the small coastal community of Whatuwhiwhi, close to 40 minutes from Kaitaia, in the Far North.
While a pupil at Taipa College, Ezekiel co-designed peer-to-peer support programme Tū Kotahi, aimed at reducing the risk of suicide by creating a safe environment for young people to talk to each other.
After completing a Bachelor of Business – the first in his whānau to attend university – Ezekiel returned north to further develop the programme.
He knows firsthand life can have its challenges.
“My whānau never had anything financially. We spent nights in our car, nights on the floor at the homes of families and friends.”
Yet he describes the circumstances of his childhood as setting him up for success.
“I didn’t realise I was poor until I was old enough to, one, understand what poor was and, two, be told that I was by someone else.
“As much as we didn’t have anything financially growing up, my parents were amazing.”
He says they both worked hard to get by, and he struggles to remember any important event – a school sports day, prizegiving or graduation – when one or other of them wasn’t in attendance.
Reflecting on it, Ezekiel thinks his upbringing fostered a sense of self-belief.
“It was a feeling that the world was our oyster as long as we worked hard for it.”
Ezekiel joined the Leadership Network to deepen his connections to Asia
Gaining a deeper understanding of his own whakapapa has been a motivation for joining the Leadership Network.
“It’s about understanding our history, and understanding our connection,” Ezekiel says.
“Many would say that our first waka actually left from places like Taiwan, and places like South Japan.
“I think for me, it’s a feeling of historical connection, or a feeling of home, of similarity of culture.”
Ezekiel has ticked of some enviable international travel destinations in recent years. In 2015 he was at the White House, where he attended a gathering of tribal leaders from around the world. Three years later, it was Buckingham House, to receive a medal from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
He calls that travel a “privilege”.
Ezekiel recieving the Queen's Young Leader's Award from the Queen in 2018
However, it was working in a former role with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise collaborating with colleagues in South East Asia that helped Ezekiel gain perspective on his unique place in the world – and leveraging off it.
“I started to realise that culture plays a significant part in our value proposition when it comes to working with that part of the world,” he says.
“We have to continue to trust in that relationship, to get New Zealand businesses – whether they be Māori, Pasifica or anyone else – over into those markets and to bring those markets to New Zealand.”
For Ezekiel, it is about more than just economic gains – it is also about broadening horizons.
“As a young person growing up without much, those exposures (to the world outside our borders) changed my trajectory. Now I’m thinking how can I replicate those for future generations?”
Ezekiel has sights set on an offshore posting in years to come, and he acknowledges that continuing to build strong connections with Kiwis living and working in Asia will help steer him in the right direction.
“I see the Foundation as a vehicle to do that,” he says.
The Asia New Zealand Foundation Leadership Network equips the next generation of Kiwi leaders to thrive in Asia. We provide members with the connections, knowledge and confidence to lead New Zealand’s future relationship with the region.
