As a child, I played badminton vehemently, a passion matched only by the countless hours I spent on computer games. I grew up out west in Glen Eden, where I attended Kaurilands Primary School, Glen Eden Intermediate, and eventually Mount Albert Grammar School. My experience with education started rocky. I left high school after Year 12 without university entrance.

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Despite this, I was able to enter AUT through the diploma programme, majoring in Japanese. At the time, I was desperate to leave Auckland, and studying a second language presented the opportunity to go abroad. In my second year, this became a reality when I received a Prime Minister’s Scholarship for Asia to participate in a one-year exchange programme in Sapporo, Japan. The experience opened my eyes to a whole different world, and I’ve never looked back.

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After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, I received the Prime Minister’s Scholarship again to pursue a master’s in political science in Kobe, Japan. While there, I managed to carve out a niche researching city diplomacy (bilateral partnerships and networks between cities). I returned to New Zealand in 2022, having just graduated, as COVID-19 reared its ugly head.

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Faced with a nonexistent job market, like many others, I pursued further education, this time in the form of a PhD. My research in Japan indicated that many of the cities I surveyed were failing as global actors because they lacked adequate community support and engagement. Intrigued to see if cities and towns in New Zealand fared any better, I travelled the country and conducted over 40 in-depth interviews with different community groups. My findings did little to inspire confidence. Those I talked to lamented a gradual loss of collectiveness, social connection, and volunteering, coupled with reduced capacity and resourcing for community initiatives.

 

Wanting to see this for myself, I joined the Rotary Club of Auckland and Coastguard Titirangi in 2023, and quickly found they harboured similar burdens. My concerns were elevated further when I looked into statistics on community sentiment within Auckland. Survey results on quality of living show that from 2018 to 2024, the percentage of residents who experienced a sense of community where they lived dropped from 50% to 42%. The city centre was the most impacted, where in 2022, only one in five people reported experiencing a sense of community.

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While numerous scholars have raised alarms about the shifting realities of social connection and the need to rethink how we conceptualise community, here in New Zealand we seem all too content to bury our heads in the sand. Social cohesion has been utterly taken for granted. Politicians speak about local communities as if they are self-sufficient and enduring. Yet there is mounting evidence suggesting otherwise.

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Community is like an engine in a car. While an engine is imperative to a car’s function, it rarely draws our attention until the car breaks down, at which point it’s one of the first things we check. As Auckland, especially the city centre, faces a plethora of obstacles, I’d say it’s about time we lifted the hood and examined the state of our local communities.​

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Having now called Waitematā home for the past three years, I can no longer sit idly while I watch the social fabric of our beautiful city slowly unravel. I by no means claim to have all the answers to Auckland's or Waitematā’s issues, but I can bring a sociological perspective that I feel has been sorely overlooked. 

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My vision for Waitematā would see a robust research process developed to ensure the board has up-to-date empirical data on the interests, needs, and realities of residents. This would coincide with a focus on restoring Waitematā’s relevance as a place to gather, socialise, and interact, ensuring people can do what they enjoy locally. Finally, I would see the board take a more proactive approach to community engagement, visiting people where they are instead of expecting them to come to us.