Upsouth: Digitally Enabling Rangatahi (Youth) and Their Whānau (Families) to Build Critical and Creative Thinking Toward More Active Citizenship in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

In a post-colonial Aotearoa New Zealand, solutions by rangatahi (youth) for rangatahi are essential (Hunia et al., 2020), as are civic participation and building economic agency in an increasingly challenging economic climate. Upsouth was an online community crowdsourcing platform developed by The Southern Initiative in collaboration with Itsnoon (TSI, 2021), which provided rangatahi and whānau (family) a safe space to share a lived experience, thoughts, and ideas about local kaupapa (issues/topics) of importance to them (TSI, 2019b). This chapter contextualizes the potential and the challenges of rangatahi and whānau civic engagement in Aotearoa New Zealand, and presents a brief reflective case study of the Upsouth project with some of the unexpected outcomes, presented through examples. This chapter formed part of the Urban Ecologies of Divided Cities 2022 conference New Ground sub-theme as a critical reflection on a design intervention, conceived and implemented by the lead author to overcome the post-colonial divisions of Māori, Pacific and minority ethnic rangatahi and whānau in South Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand.