What's your job about?
Currently, work in the Pacific and Development Group where our Mahi is about Aotearoa’s relationship with the Pacific and funding to support aid projects around the world. My team support renewable energy aid projects specifically, and I help manage our ones in Indonesia alongside the amazing team at Jakarta Post. A mix of planning for the future of the projects, working with suppliers, many progress hui, a report reviewing, and zui with other development partners and countries. As a foreign policy officer graduate, you change teams every few years, so after my time is up in this role I will move – could be anywhere from trade to multilateral groups to being a “desk officer” for a certain country!
What's your background?
I hail from the villages Aleisa and Tufulele in Samoa but was born and raised in Tāmaki Makaurau. I have three younger sisters and come from a big extended family. For the study, I stayed in Auckland and completed a Bachelor of Laws at AUT during which I was involved in community law, Amnesty International, and our Pacific and Māori law student groups. After an internship at the Public Trust, I moved down to Te Whanganui-a-Tara for this role.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
There is no one pathway to get to MFAT — whether you have been a part of university clubs or a volunteer within your community or church or hard at work to support whānau, these are all backgrounds that could do this mahi and bring valuable experience. Your culture, experiences and perspective are important so make sure to bring those parts of you to anything you apply for.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
There are so many moving parts contributing to New Zealand’s foreign affairs and trade — from space policy to organising visits for Prime Ministers to humanitarian and COVID response, we cover it all! We are also in an exciting space for increasing our mātauranga Māori and application of Te Tiriti to our mahi which is a kaupapa I am passionate about and is relevant to every role at MFAT.
What are the limitations of your job?
Whilst there is movement towards mātauranga Māori and Te Tiriti as mentioned above, there is still a long way to go. This lack of capacity can feel limiting in the role we have as the Crown in being a genuine Treaty partner.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student:
Stay true to your values, don’t think you should follow a certain path just because others are.
Make an effort to build relationships with your fellow students, get involved, and have fun!
All the typical time management stuff for assignments!! Break it down, plan out time, and make a study group!