Mō Āpōpō Future-Makers seeks to empower young people with the skills and confidence to solve the challenges of our future together. Taking on board the learnings from our Rangatahi Māori Futures Academy, we have spent the past year designing and testing a future-making toolkit to help rangatahi explore future problems, listen to each other's perspectives, find common ground, and determine solutions that work for everyone.
In a world where many of us feel like hope is fast being eroded, Tokona te Raki is empowering rangatahi to shape brighter futures through its latest initiative,
Mō Āpōpō Future-Makers. Piloted in 2025, Mō Āpōpō brings rangatahi together
to come up with creative solutions to future problems. The catch? The solution-making must start with collaboration. Leaving blame games and finger pointing at the door, rangatahi are invited to play a new game – one where they learn how to listen to each other, bridge different perspectives and find the common ground our future needs. In a world that rewards certainty, collapses complexity into binaries, and gives visibility to inflamed disagreements, Mō Āpōpō offers a fresh approach.
In total we have tested the toolkit with 60 young people in three different contexts: in a school classroom, at noho marae, and with youth workers and rangatahi from their youth groups to explore where our toolkit adds most value. It has been a great learning journey which has led to greater understanding about what it takes to help young people to safely challenge conventional thinking while thinking more critically, creatively and collaboratively about the challenges ahead of us.
“Before this, I didn't feel like I was a part of the future, but now I definitely do. This has changed so much for me, and it's changing every second, and I'm a part of this now, and it's like I really want to help make the change and just keep changing and be positive, because I think the future could be great.”
“[Referring to one of the tools] I went home and tried to apply it to every conversation I had and I think it's made me a better listener, a better collaborator.”
“I think it's helped me understand the established network I have around me cause when you're thinking, I've gotta do this one thing... I wanna start a process or a club or whatever you only really think of what skills do I have? You don't think of what skills do the people around me have and how can we all work together? And I think it's opened my mind to this idea that you can use other people's abilities."
“This has kinda helped us to understand that the future isn't scary because there's nothing there, the future is exciting because there's nothing there – there’s all these possibilities.”
We believe these types of skills have a place in our future as we navigate our increasingly fragmented world. and look forward to refining and scaling our approach next year.
Our vision is a new generation of rangatahi who are equipped and empowered to shape futures of their own making, and for the collective good. While we hold fast to our long-term vision, our project is emergent – this means we are testing new ideas and adapting as we go. Trialing three different approaches helps us to gain a clear understanding of what works best and has the greatest potential to become sustainable long-term. We don’t know yet exactly what this will look like, but we are looking forward to continuing to work with our network of amazing passionate and out-of-the-box thinking people who are on the journey with us.
Thanks to our funders: Peter McKenzie Project and Rātā Foundation who continue to believe in Tokona te Raki and support our kaupapa.
If you want to know more about Mō Āpōpō future-makers, please contact:
Alice Dimond
Project Manager
alice.dimond@ngaitahu.iwi.nz
