Far North Mayor Moko Tepania said he believed it was "only right" for youth to help make decisions that would affect the future of the Far North
Far North Mayor Moko Tepania said he believed it was "only right" for youth to help make decisions that would affect the future of the Far North
Far North Kahika/Mayor Moko Tepania has won a global award for his positive impact on rangatahi (youth).
One of five winners, Tepania stands in the humbling company of four ministers with inspiring records of achieving world-firsts - many of them after having overcome tremendous adversity.
He said the win presented an “exciting opportunity to meet with other young leaders and to discuss the issues and challenges they face”.
“I will be keen to compare notes, and to learn from the solutions they can share,” said Tepania, who’ll travel to Belfast to attend the awards ceremony in October.
Tepania (Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa, Te Rarawa) said he’d been “blown away” by the support received since being nominated.
He intended to accept the award “on behalf of Aotearoa and the many leaders here at home who are just as deserving of recognition”.
He also acknowledged the “huge amount of work we have to do here at home to serve our people better”.
Tepania, 32, is the youngest and first Māori mayor of the Far North, and was one of 15 leaders aged 18 to 35 shortlisted last month for being exemplary of the benefits of including young people in politics.
The awards website highlighted Tepania’s stance as a supporter of the Make It 16 campaign to lower the age of voting, as well as his position on the national committee for the Mayors Taskforce For Jobs that seeks to create better employment and education opportunities for youth at a local level.
Tepania said better engagement and strengthening the youth council were his current top priorities related to rangatahi.
The other Politicians of the Year with whom Tepania shared the win are elected officials in Canada, Australia, Belgium and Nepal
“They are going to inherit the Far North of the future, so it’s only right they help us make the decisions on what that looks like.”
As of June 30, The Far North District was home to an estimated 5019 eligible voters aged 18 to 24, with 2847 (or 56.7 per cent) enrolled to vote.
The 2022 local body elections saw low participation across the country, and a turnout of 19,622 total voters - or just 41.5 per cent - in the Far North district. That’s according to Taituarā, the national organisation supporting local government professionals.
In the 2020 general election, the Te Tai Tokerau electorate counted 6069 people aged 18 to 24 enrolled to vote, with 3880 (or 63.9 per cent) casting a valid ballot.
The Northland electorate counted 3299 18 to 24-year-olds enrolled to vote, with 2327 (67.8 per cent) turning out.
According to the Electoral Commission, there was a big increase in the number of young people who voted in 2020 - although it’s unclear whether youth turnout in Northland and Te Tai Tokerau followed this upward national trend.
Chief electoral officer Alicia Wright stressed the importance of youth turnout for high participation rates in future elections.
”The younger people are when they start voting, the more likely they are to be voters for life.”
The increase in voters aged 18 to 24 was counted at 43,293, or 15.3 per cent over the 2014 general election.
Tepania’s achievements of being the first to submit a council report in the Māori language and the first elected member to have spoken only te reo Māori in a council meeting were also highlighted in the shortlist announcement.
Following the announcement of his win, Tepania’s message to youth was one of possibility, summed up by a whakataukī (proverb) “Iti rearea teitei kahikatea ka taea,” which means “even a small bellbird can reach the great heights of a kahikatea tree”.
Tepania also pointed out the interchangeability of the meanings of the te reo Māori words for youth and leadership.
“Rangatahi is one of our Māori expressions for youth; it means to weave together as one.
“Rangatira, one of our expressions for leadership, means to weave together a group. The meanings are interchangeable.
“Rangatahi are rangatira, and anyone passionate can make a difference!”
Of his global award win, Kahika (Mayor) Tepania said: "Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini. My success is not mine alone but is collectively ours!"
According to the awards website, winners were chosen by an international panel of judges with unparalleled political expertise, and assessed based on how they had used their public office to effect positive change in their communities and countries, particularly to benefit and represent young people.
The other winners are elected officials in Australia, Nepal, Canada and Belgium.
Ayor Makur Chuot was born in an Ethiopian refugee camp after her family fled South Sudan, and lived in a Kenyan refugee camp for a decade before arriving in Perth. She is Western Australia’s first MP of African descent and the first person from a South Sudanese background to occupy a seat in any Parliament in Australia.
Sobita Gautam of Nepal is the youngest female parliamentarian in the country’s history. She is also a founding member of the Rastriya Swatantra Party, which is now Nepal’s fourth largest political entity.
Arielle Kayabaga fled her native Burundi to escape civil war and settled in Canada, where she became the first black woman to be elected MP for her constituency of London West.
Samuel Cogolati, of Belgium, is an MP, deputy chair for the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the youngest-ever president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians. He was behind Belgium’s inclusion of the crime of ecocide in its new Criminal Code.
The award was created by London and Wales-based charity One Young World, which seeks to empower and develop young leaders.
It is the first global award recognising the work of promising young politicians from around the world, launched to counter the low level of youth engagement in politics.
Of his upcoming first-time visit to the United Kingdom, Tepania said he was “excited to represent the Far North and to continue to advocate for rangatahi while abroad”.
