CIWL Summit 2023 Programme
DAY ONE
FRI 20 OCT
DAY TWO
SAT 21 OCT
DAY THREE
SUN 22 OCT
Cook Islands Youth Network
Ko'onga Mapu
"Tarai'anga 'i te au Māpū 'ei arataki no āpõpõ"
About Ko'onga Mapu
Ko’onga Mapu, when translated means “Youth Nest”. It is a virtual hub created for Cook Islands young people across Aotearoa, to use as a tool to connect with one another, share and access resources, information and keep updated with topics that affect them.
Following the Cook Islands National Forum in 2020, CIDANZ recognised that it needed to change inorder to grow youth capacity in its 10 affiliated regions through a strategy that was created and led by young Cook Islands people. This led to the formation of CIDANZ’s Cook Islands Youth Division (CYD).
Ko’onga Mapu was birthed out of CYD, a Division that seeks to establish, improve, and encourage young people to identify and create solutions to problems they may be facing in their respective communities.
Ko’onga Mapu supports the vision of CYD by helping young people access resources and opportunities such as government funding, digital resources, and tools to deliver youth projects in their communities. However, there is a desire for Ko’onga Mapu to become a physical department that will roll out these services – a vision we are working towards achieving.
About the National Cook Islands
Women's Leadership Summit 2023
Background
Inspired by the minds of Cook Islands mapu who attended the 2022 national youth conference, this Cook Islands Women’s Leadership Summit aims to strengthen the cultural identity of our Cook Islands women, discover what is important in their lives, and encourage them to make meaningful connections with likeminded women.
It provides an opportunity for our women to share their stories, their successes, failures, learnings, ideas, and to collaborate on shared goals to better the position of women in our Cook Islands communities.
Purpose
The purpose of the CIWLS is to provide a safe space for Cook Islands women to:
- Explore aspects of their identity and culture including their own biases, fears, and boundaries.
- Explore their style of leadership including increasing their knowledge and understanding of authentic leadership, recognizing how to exert their power, and using as well as preserving their authentic voice, especially in challenging situations.
- Create an environment that fosters meaningful connections to be made with CIDANZ and all the women attending, with the attendees and facilitators / keynote speakers / panelists, and between the attendees themselves.
- And lastly, defining what a ‘Cook Islands woman leader’ is and how we all can nurture future Cook Islands leaders.