Encouraging young Māori into business ownership

Monday, 27 July 2020

Georgetown Barbers, from left, Findlay McNaughton, Stylo Wilson, Nikora Heraka Mahakanui Rautahi-Mahuika (owner), Marlon Maretu, Jhoan Bedoya and Nate Walters. Heraka Mahakanui started the business in Invercargill two years ago.

Before Nikora Heraka Mahakanui Rautahi-Mahuika started his business he did labouring jobs and was even homeless for a time.

Today, the 30-year-old runs a barber shop in Invercargill and he hopes it will be a stepping stone to other businesses.

He’s an example of young Māori that are being encouraged to embrace the business world.

Growing up, his father had his own pounamu carving business which meant it [running a business] was something he didn’t see as impossible.

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What stopped a lot of other people from running their own business was mindset of self-doubt, people like security and that didn’t exist in the business world, he said.

There might be months when he would only make $800 and you just had to push to do better next month.

Invercargill had a lot of opportunities for creative thinking businesses as leases were cheap it was easier to get started.

“I feel like it's a blank canvas down here, a lot of potential because I think Invercargill has always been held back from the world.”

Tokona Te Raki: Māori Futures Collective report titled Ka whati te tai: a generation disrupted highlighted the vulnerability of young Māori entering the workforce.

The report highlighted that 169,000 of the 329,000 strong Māori workforce would be affected negatively from the Covid-19.

Youth workers were also highlighted to be vulnerable with 462,000 of the 875,000 strong youth work force aged between 15 and 35 negatively affected.

However, the report highlighted entrepreneurship as an opportunity for young workers in the future.

Awarua Whanau Services chief executive Mata Cherrington said: “Our whānau need to start thinking instead of how do we be the labourers, how do we become that business owner.”

“Getting the Southland youth voice and not just from one sector of the community, getting them to express what they think Southland needs is imperative right now, she said.

There had been such a reliance from blue collar workers in Southland on Tiwai, or the freezing works, or building as labourer, she said.

“For our kids they need to be empowered beyond what we have taught them.”

Looking at closing of Ocean Beach freezing works, the Bluff community was still overcoming the effects, she said.

People think it’s just the closure of jobs but it was the closure of sports clubs, and the closure social that affected Bluff, and Tiwai would have an even bigger impact on Southland.

A youth hub was one of the projects up for consideration to help spark entrepreneurship and education opportunities for youth in Southland.

Tribal Economies manager Aimee Kaio said the employment outlook for Māori was changing.

Kaio is working on a kaupapa to explore entrepreneurial opportunities for youth aged 16 to 19 with new employment opportunities.

One entrepreneurial opportunities was in the technology space, as youth were quite tech-savvy, Kaio said.

Tokona Te Raki: Māori Futures Collective executive director Eruera Tarena said a lot of young Māori in the low-skill job category made them particularly vulnerable to the economic effects of Covid-19.

To create resilience, young Māori needed to look into creating their own jobs and their own bubble economies, he said.

Instead of going back to normal in the next three to five years when the economy recovered, they needed to move forward, he said.

Picking a profession for life was a false idea as today young people might face 17 jobs in their lifetime.

Training needed to be flexible and constant to enable adaption, he said.