Kia ora, Aotearoa

Kia ora Aotearoa,

My name is Mel Bedggood and I am the Founder of UNITY. Aotearoa. A huge thank you to all of those that have contributed to making this happen.

We have so many great strengths as Kiwis and yet we struggle with many social, health, economic and environmental challenges. At the heart of this, is what I believe to be an identity crisis as a nation. We are in an era where we are endeavouring to address inequity and embrace diversity. Yet too many of our actions are also driving us apart, rather than bringing us together.

How do we become clear and united on what matters to us as Kiwis? Regardless of socio-economic status, ethnicity or our many lifestyle differences? This might scream idealism however through my life journey to date, which I see as privileged, not because of coming from wealth but rather because I have had the opportunity to experience many different perspectives and broadened my worldview to understand the 'whys' that get in the way of us working together, as a unit, to achieve our common priorities.

For most of my childhood, I was raised by my mother who was a beneficiary. I fell pregnant with my first child at 16 years old and I worked hard to support us both whilst going to university to become a frontline social worker and mental health clinician. I went on to work in both kaupapa and mainstream NGOs, setting up 2 parenting services and eventually becoming a public sector senior leader. I then left this security behind to become an entrepreneurial business woman to find answers to improve our society from outside of the public sector system. It was after this change, that a twist of fate also plummeted me deep back into our public sector 'system'. This time providing me with lived experience as a mother to a primary school aged child with complicated and severe neurodiversity and mental health challenges.

Through all of this, I have come to understand this simple thing: We as human beings are governed by our belief system. When it comes to building a strong and united Aotearoa, we need to explore how we can become united in our beliefs to create the high impact change we need to ensure we build a better Aotearoa for our children and their children.

If we want to change our course of consistently maintaining a top spot (in the developed world) in achieving devastating outcomes (youth suicide, child poverty, domestic violence, child obesity to name a few) we need to all commit to doing things differently. If we want safe communities to run our businesses in, if we want happy and thriving whānau, if we want all of our children in Aotearoa to feel secure and know where they belong, we have to change how we come together, work together and support each other. We need to start by seeking to understand each other more, to become more informed on what others' experiences are, how these have shaped their beliefs and why they are this way.

UNITY. Aotearoa provides us with this opportunity.