Rangatahi aren’t just the leaders of tomorrow, they’re leaders right now, says tauira Noah McBirney-Warnes (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Whātua).
Or at least they can be if provided with the right opportunities, he says.
Noah – who is in his first year of a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Politics – recently attended the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, as a youth delegate for Heirs To Our Ocean (H2OO).
H2OO is an organisation that aims to connect, educate and empower youth concerned with environmental and humanitarian issues to become the next generation of leaders.
“I’ve always been passionate about youth advocacy because I’ve seen firsthand how powerful young people’s voices can be – especially when they’re given real space to lead and influence change,” Noah says.
“Growing up, I often saw rangatahi with deep insights and care for their communities, but without meaningful platforms to share them.”
Noah attended the conference as a delegate for H2OO’s Youth Inclusion Expert Working Group for the UN Ocean Decade, which is a framework to identify, generate and use critical ocean knowledge to manage the ocean sustainably.
