PNBHS NEWS

Aotearoa Youth Declaration

 
Picture of Gerard Atkin
Aotearoa Youth Declaration
by Gerard Atkin - Thursday, 9 May 2019, 12:08 PM
 

Thank you to Deputy Head Prefect John Cole for providing this report:

"On the first weekend of the recent school holidays, a group of five PNBHS students attended the 2019 Aotearoa Youth Declaration. This 4 day conference in Auckland, held annually, seeks to bring together motivated young people in from all around Aotearoa. The conference seeks to hear their opinions on issues facing Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as construct a “Youth Declaration” that presents an abridged youth perspective. The conference also seeks empower rangatahi with skills surrounding communication, cultural understanding and active/conscientious citizenship.

The event is split up into some 24 different “ropū groups”, where discussion ranged from our country's heritage, to issues of Equity to issues of Technology and Innovation in our countries future. Participants had the opportunity to do local workshops, visit industry experts in their places of work with the wider Auckland area and to voice their opinions on all of the topics.

By the end of the 4 days the boys had made friends from all around the country, taken on personal challenges relating to perspective and learning about other cultures and gained new understandings of what it means to be rangatahi with a voice in Aotearoa. Furthermore, the boys have refined the skills that will allow all of them to engage with their local elected representatives and foster change in their communities.

The attendees from PNBHS were: William Wood, Trent Hooper, Rohan Sharma, Liam Richfield and John Cole."