Active Citizenship Aotearoa on getting young people engaged in civics
Meeting in a bar at 7:30 in the morning might seem like a peculiar way to start the day, but it’s the only time that the busy team from Active Citizenship Aotearoa can all meet. In a corner of The Old Bailee (a favorite spot for the $3 breakfasts), Victoria university students Peter, Isabella and Victoria told me about their work to empower young kiwis to shape their communities and the future of New Zealand.
First of all, what is ‘civics’?
Peter: Civics is ‘the study of the rights and duties of citizenship’. It’s an amorphous word which can mean a lot, but it’s often used to instigate a frame of mind; understanding how to influence the political system but also the relevance of that system to your community and day-to-day life. Part of it is about political awareness; knowing what political parties are doing and what they stand for, how to vote and why you should, what parliament is, and our political history. That theoretical knowledge is important, but it’s only a small part of the wider community-focused picture. The best way to understand civics is to see it in action. It’s young people who make shopping cheaper for their community by putting supermarket discounts in the school newsletter, or organise a group of their friends to clean up rubbish at a local beach. It’s getting involved in your community — through direct action or political advocacy. It’s about people understanding their duties and opportunities as citizens, and caring about both the present they’re living in and future of New Zealand.
Why is there a low youth voter turnout in New Zealand?
Issie: There’s a civics deficit in our education curriculum. It should be in every aspect we learn in school and how we live in our communities, but if you’re younger than 18 there’s perceivably not much you can do to influence politics. Under 18 year olds make up a significant part of our communities and are affected by some of the key issues in our society, but they’ve been locked out of the system — not just from voting — but also from our political structure. Our government should be representative of everyone but it’s not representative of this demographic of people.
Peter: There was a citizenship study 8 years ago where 84% of year 9 students expected to vote when they became year 13, yet the current voting rate for 18–24 year olds is 62.73%. What we imagine is happening over that time is a constant bombardment from life, to work, and different aspects of the education system taking over too much of their lives. But surprisingly, youth are more actively involved in civics than adults think they are. Dr Bronwyn Wood recently wrote about how young people use advocacy and protest mechanisms which aren’t recognised by an older generation because they’re innovative and don’t work within the current political system.
So our education is failing people who want to be involved, who would be involved if they could, but they get to year 13 and don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing and how to do it.
Victoria: Although students get a basic civics run-down in their year 9 and 10 social studies classes it’s all dependant on the teacher and how well they do it, and it’s another 3 years until they can vote. The passion and motivation is lost over that time, because it hasn’t been nurtured and carried on. That’s the hole we’re trying to fill.
Is there room for civics education to be redesigned?
Issie: Absolutely. It’s something we’ve meet with the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) about. It’s complex because civics is relevant in all subjects and there are questions about how assessment would work.
Our current education system is so driven towards assessments and grades that to include civics, we’d need a complete review of the New Zealand curriculum to instead focus on students learning skills for life.
It’s a question that goes well beyond our own scope. We need to work within the system but look at how we can support a change towards more holistic learning, and give young people opportunities to shape it themselves. We need to put the ball back into our court by asking the big questions like ‘what do we want our future government to look like?’. Young people sit at the core of the education system so they need to not only benefit from, but design and influence that system to meet their needs. That means having difficult conversations about controversial issues like online voting, compulsory voting and lowering the voting age.
How are you getting young people involved in civics?
Peter: We’re mainly focusing on two areas; helping young people understand how the current civic system works, and then how to engage in and shape the governance of their communities.
Victoria: To do that, we’re starting with a summit called Shaping Aotearoa, which is going to be held in Porirua on the 3rd of July. We chose Porirua because it has a very low youth voter turnout comparatively to the Wellington electorate, and a lot of similar educational events happen in Wellington central. Accessibility is huge part of what we’re about; we do not want a trainride to be a barrier from participating in events like this. We’ve got a range of politicians, ministers, leading academics and activists speaking, and then skills-based workshops including: campaigning, political lobbying, creativity for change, and online mechanisms. We want young people to take away some practical skills. It’s not an academic summit — this is hands-on learning about issues that matter.
How did Active Citizenship Aotearoa come to be?
Issie: We all separately had the vision of doing something in the civic space, and when I transferred to Victoria University I decided that this was the year I had to knuckle down and do something about it. I pulled together some people who were passionate about active youth citizenship, and we spent numerous saturdays over the past year nutting out what we wanted to do.
Victoria: I remember brainstorming all the issues affecting youth that aren’t taught in our curriculum; environmental issues, climate change, financial literacy…we planned an educational roadshow around the bottom of the North Island and but then we realised that we’ve got no money! No car! And only one of us can drive. So instead we focused on becoming a credible organisation; creating a name, defining ourselves, and refining our focus areas. We applied for some funding, but didn’t get it. We were broken hearted but it motivated us to really focus on defining ourselves and what we wanted to achieve. Then we applied for the Ministry of Youth development funding, and that’s how Active Citizenship Aotearoa was born.
What change do you want to create?
Peter: Voting is the most simplistic measure; it would be fantastic if in three-to-four years we could have increased the youth voter turnout rate by 5%. However voting is only one way to make your voice heard, and civic participation should not revolve around a three-yearly cycle. The bigger, more important picture is seeing more youth involved in civics, like being on political party lists and at the head of not for profit organisations and advocacy groups. That would be an indication that young people are coming into the fold and are making a stand.
Victoria: More young people being active citizens is what we want to see.
It’s not just about voting and engaging politically, but also starting their own groups, sharing ideas, and designing what they want the future for their community to look like.
We’re empowering that to happen and giving them the tools and the confidence to give it a go, because we can’t do everything ourselves!
Issie: At the moment we can disconnect and escape politics, so there needs to be a review of the current curriculum to foster civic participation. There also needs to be a broader conversation about community engagement because 25% of New Zealand citizens are not born here, so they’re not going to benefit from civics education in our schools.
How did you become passionate about this?
Issie: In year 7 my teacher was a climate change denier. I used to present arguments to him, and it made me want young people to stand up and make sure that the big issues are brought to the attention of people in power. Later in high school, I was involved in environmental groups and became interested in civic participation and voting. I ran civics education workshops at my school and organised for all year 13 students to enrol to vote. It wasn’t just students that came along to the workshops — teachers came too. I discovered a lack of access to political information, but a definite appetite for that type of engagement. I’d always wanted to study law and advocacy at university, but changed my mind in year 13 and decided to become a doctor. When I got into med school I saw smart young people going into our health profession who didn’t know anything about what was happening in civics. Those young doctors are going to represent the health profession; if they don’t understand the value of their own voices in the political system, then we’ve got a really big problem.
I realised that this is an issue that all young people are being locked out of, so I moved back to Wellington, picked up law, and started this organisation.
Peter: My family were actors and writers so we were never financially well off, but I was always really lucky. I got a scholarship to attend private schooling and had a string of opportunities through high school that very few people get. In year 13 I looked back at all those opportunities, and knew that they should have gone to others who were more deserving. I wanted to figure out a way to spread out opportunities more evenly, and the best way seemed to be talking to people about civics to get them involved. It felt like a hopeless battle at the time, but then I met these guys and all of a sudden it’s much easier.
Victoria: I was always an active citizen from a young age, but I didn’t know it. My dad tells the story of how there was a massive, beautiful tree in our backyard that had to be cut down. Apparently the tree-cutting people stood at the bottom while I sat in the top of the tree crying, ‘I won’t let you cut it down!’. That motivation to look after the environment grew through high school where I started an environmental group and went to a Sir Peter Blake Trust Enviroleaders’ Forum. The forum opened a door for me; I met other young passionate people and more opportunities arose. I got involved with UN Youth and shifted my environmental focus to a political focus because I realised environmental problems come from civics as well. I wanted my peers to see their full potential — those young people who cared about these issues but didn’t know how to go about solving them or didn’t feel they could. There’s a barrier of ‘oh, that’s for leadership students. That’s what other people do — it’s not for me.’ but given the right tools and education they could be leaders in their communities.
Issie: We were all privileged — we got opportunities and I’m really thankful for that — but advocacy is often perceived to be relevant for a select number of students. Most of all, what we want to ensure through Active Citizenship Aotearoa is that civic engagement is equitable for all young people.
What are your plans for the future?
Victoria: We don’t have any money after this summit, so we’re not 100% sure. As soon as we launched we had an amazing response from all around New Zealand — high school students, academics and politicians who want to help us — so we need to figure out how to tap into that knowledge and experience. We might start an advisory group, a team of volunteers, and we’d like to create a long term New Zealand-wide strategic plan. In 2018 we’re hoping to run a civic conversation with communities, organisations and individuals from around the country to develop a civics proposal.
How can people get involved or support the work you’re doing?
Come to the summit, or get in touch to join our organisation/network to contribute to the conversation.
