Oskar Waikari is the newest member of the Eastland Port Project team in Tairāwhiti, and the first TupuToa intern to join McConnell Dowell as a permanent employee.

We began working with TupuToa in 2021 and you can read about that journey here. In 2022 we continued the partnership successfully recruiting six summer interns for the 2022/2023 programme. Our internship programme runs from November to February however, we have continued to work with our interns keeping them employed part-time while they attend university.

In February the team were privileged to attend the Annual TupuToa Gala Dinner in Auckland. Due to weather events around Aotearoa at the time, only four of our six interns could attend in person.  It was a night to awhi (embrace) our interns, acknowledge their journey and celebrate their potential as young Māori and Pasifika leaders contributing to a greater Aotearoa.  

TupuToa was born from the need to see increased Māori and Pacific representation in leadership positions in the corporate sector. Māori and Pacific peoples comprise a quarter of our population and are largely invisible in corporate New Zealand. TupuToa programmes aim to address the persistent inequalities facing our communities and disrupt intergenerational disadvantage.

Over the last seven years, TupuToa has increased the number of placements from 28 in their first year to 340 in their latest round (2022/2023) and it has been an honour to be part of this journey.

Our team pictured below: Paige Leota, Reagan Kelly, Oskar Waikari and Conrad Winthrop along with Stephen Delaney, Dee Burke, Donna Wilson and Daniel Patten.  Unable to attend were Leinati Eteuati and Marie Leala.