South Taranaki iwi leaping into San Francisco’s Silicon Valley tech sector

South Taranaki iwi Ngāti Ruanui is taking 20 students on a trip to San Francisco's Silicon Valley, with the group gathering for a special karakia at Tutahi Church, Nukumaru. Photo / Laird Harper

South Taranaki iwi Ngāti Ruanui is opening doors for young Māori students to pursue study outside the region through a whirlwind tour of San Francisco’s Silicon Valley tech sector.

In 2015 Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui Trust started New Zealand’s first iwi-owned and run digital coding initiative – 2NUiCODE programme – under Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, in her former role as chief executive of the iwi.

Trust kaiw’aka’aere (chief executive) Rachel Arnott said this was the third trip the programme was making to San Francisco, with 20 students from schools around South Taranaki taking part.

“The numbers are so low for Māori in technology that our vision would be to try to get them pathways into technology courses out of that Taranaki area.

“For many of us, the opportunities are just staying in Pātea and working at the meatworks, or Fonterra in Hāwera or in Eltham at the cheese factory.”

Te Kiri King, a former student of the programme, is employed by the trust and will be a leader on the trip.

He said the first San Francisco trip he went on was “very pivotal” for his life.

“I suppose as a young person, like any curious kid, you wondered how big the world was and, coming from my family being Pātea Māori Club and travelling all over, I knew somewhat.

“But to experience that firsthand was beyond what I could have thought at that time, and the technology was enormous.”

Arnott said education pathways after high school were quite slim in South Taranaki and Ngāti Ruanui wanted to close the gap for students.

“That’s what we’re aiming for, transitioning them from here to university.”

Pātea students wanting to study at the Western Institute of Technology in New Plymouth would need to drive for more than an hour. For further study options at UCOL Te Pūkenga, the travel time to Whanganui was about 45 minutes and nearly another hour to Palmerston North.

“I think here in South Taranaki the options are quite slim,” Arnott said.

On Monday to Wednesday, about 30 students meet for the 2NUiCODE after-school programme, with 20 to 60 students each from Hāwera Primary, Pātea Area School, Te Paepae o Aotea and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Ruanui involved during school hours.

“We must carve out our own identity in this vital and ever-growing, multibillion-dollar sector.”

Students on the trip will experience some of Silicon Valley’s most cutting-edge global tech companies such as LinkedIn, Microsoft Garage, Apple, Twitch and Google.

The group will also visit Finance Now to look at how AI advances are being used in businesses and go to Stanford University for a digital workshop.

“It’s quite full-on, there’s not really a break – only one day of shopping,” Arnott said.

For 16 of the 20 students, it was a tight turnaround to apply for a passport before the trip.

King said he was looking forward to his return to San Francisco.

“I’m excited to see the kids experience what I experienced when I was their age.”

The 2NUiCODE programme involves eSports as well as coding and design-based technologies such as 3D printing and robotics.

“As a kid, I only did gaming and I saw the harm of that, so my holiday programme doesn’t focus so much just on the screens, but also using your hand and eye co-ordination.”

A ceremony was held at Tutahi Church next to Tauranga Ika Marae on State Highway 3 with a special karakia for 2NUiCODE students, tutors, kaima’i and w’ānau before their trip.

Arnott said she hoped the trip would inspire students to look outside South Taranaki: “It is the encouragement of having the kaha [strength] to go outside of your shell.”

Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.