Who leads the kaupapa?

​Building culturally competent organisations

Who ​​Leads the kaupapa?

​Pākehā shouldn’t be in charge of leading diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

We shouldn’t.

​And, yes, I recognise the irony in my saying this.

Me, the person that coaches organisations about diversity, equity and inclusion.

But if you ever work with me, you’ll discover that I always state to speak with those who have that lived experience. And that is because unless you have lived experience, you cannot speak on behalf of one who does.Why?

Until you have lived experience, you cannot fully appreciate each of the intersecting inequities another person may face. Fact. The second you change the narrative from white person, the world becomes less inclusive and more inequitable.Fact. A white person will navigate the world easier than a person of colour. Fact. An able-bodied person will navigate the world easier than a person with a disability. Fact. A hetero-normative (straight person, living life as the gender assigned at birth) will navigate the world easier than a person from the rainbow community.Just because someone may understand this, does not qualify them to lead DE&I. Don’t put a person without that experience of marginalisation, in charge of leading the kaupapa. By committing to decolonisation and building your cultural competency, you can help to make spaces safer for those people with lived experience to attain equity.

Holding space for them is often the first place to start.