Ara Taiohi

Youth Week 2023 needs a theme! Each year, our team works in different ways to source the theme concept with young people. The Youth Week theme ensures that we are sharing a clear message across the motu, that comes directly from young people. It is an opportunity for us all to lean in to what our young people are saying and amplify that message to all of Aotearoa – from big cities to tiny towns, from conversations around the kitchen table to the halls of Government.

This year, we are asking you to work with the young people in your community to tell us what they think the key message for Youth Week 2023 should be. We’d love your taiohi to help us with theme ideas and submissions. Prize packs will be awarded to the top theme ideas and a Grand Prize Pack will be awarded to the winning theme!

We are asking you to work with the young people you know and already have relationships with, to come up with a core concept… you don’t have to nail the final wording; our team will work with the winning group to confirm this and translate into te reo Māori or Pākehā.

Previous themes have been:

• 2022: “Our Voices Matter, We Deserve to Be Heard – Taringa Whakaronga ki te Reo o Ngā Taiohi
• 2021: “We’re Stronger Together”
• 2020: “E korero ana mātou. E whakarongo ana koutou? | We’re speaking. Are you listening?”
• 2019: “We Are More Than You See – He wai hōhonu a mātou: (literally, we are deep waters, thus referring to unseen depths).

Key dates

• Submissions close 31 October
• Top Themes announced approximately 7 November.

Submissions will be considered by Ara Taiohi. The top ideas will be collated and put to a final vote by the public on the Ara Taiohi social media channels.

We look forward to reading all the amazing ideas that come through from the taiohi you work with.

Ngā mihi nui,

Youth Week 2023 whānau