Atafa o le Moana Systems Change Retreat 2026

What does it look like when young people are trusted to lead the future of their communities?

For our youth leadership programme ‘Atafa o le Moana’, it starts by grounding young people in who they are first.

Earlier this year, young Pacific leaders from across Auckland gathered for the Atafa o le Moana 2026 Systems Change Retreat - a four-day journey designed to support youth to explore systems thinking, leadership, and innovation through Indigenous and Pacific ways of knowing. Facilitated by the team at Tapasā, the retreat created a space where young people could begin connecting the issues they care deeply about with practical tools to create change within their communities.

But unlike many traditional leadership programmes, Atafa does not begin with solutions, business ideas, or pitches. It begins with identity, relationships, values, and understanding the vā.

The retreat was intentionally grounded in Pacific cultural practice, relational learning, and collective reflection. Before young people explored systems thinking frameworks, they first spent time reflecting on who they are, where they come from, and the values that guide the way they move through community.

Together, participants developed what became known as the Atafa Way — a shared set of values that would guide both their relationships and their future systems change work. Values such as vā, reciprocity, kaitasi, faith, collaboration, perseverance, service, and mindfulness became the foundation of the retreat.

For many youth, these values were deeply personal.

Esmae (20) spoke about the importance of family, village responsibility, and “being a good future ancestor.” Matelita (20) reflected on fakamalosi — empowering others who may feel overwhelmed by systemic issues. Keneti (18) spoke about service and meeting the needs of the community, while Annika (17) reflected on creating spaces where young people can feel safe and authentic.

The retreat itself moved fluidly between talanoa, systems mapping, beach walks, journalling, cultural reflection, karaoke nights, fishbowl debates, storytelling, and practical workshops. Rather than separating leadership from culture and wellbeing, Atafa intentionally weaves them together - recognising that innovation does not happen in isolation from identity, relationships, and lived experience.

Throughout the weekend, youth were introduced to systems thinking frameworks such as the Six Conditions of Systems Change and the Indigenous navigation framework Hautū Waka. But instead of learning these as abstract theories, participants explored them through the realities they see every day in their own communities.

Young people began unpacking the deeper structures surrounding issues they care about - from Pacific financial literacy and youth employment to food sovereignty, climate resilience, cultural preservation, neurodiversity support, traditional sports, mental health, and intergenerational knowledge sharing.

One youth participant explored creating pathways for high-risk youth through building and trades mentorship. Another envisioned weaving workshops to preserve Pacific cultural knowledge across generations. Others developed ideas around youth-led media platforms, tutoring initiatives, Banaban digital archives, climate resilience, and Pacific wellbeing storytelling.

What connected every project idea was that they were grounded not in trends, but in lived experience.

Many participants reflected that before Atafa, systems change felt overwhelming, abstract, or difficult to understand. By the end of the retreat, young people were beginning to recognise that systems are not distant institutions alone - they are relationships, mindsets, policies, power dynamics, and everyday experiences that shape communities.

The retreat also challenged the idea that leadership only exists in ‘formal’ spaces. Through talanoa and reflection, youth explored how cultural knowledge, storytelling, ancestral navigation, service, and community care are all forms of leadership already embedded within Pacific communities.

A key part of the retreat was helping young people move from passion into practice. Rather than asking youth to “fix” issues immediately with one-off workshops or bandaid solutions to the symptoms, Atafa encourages them to first observe, build relationships, understand systems, gather insights from their community, and test assumptions before jumping into action.

This next phase of the Atafa journey will see youth take their ideas back into community through talanoa, insight gathering, facilitation, and real-world testing.

At its heart, Atafa o le Moana is about reminding Pacific young people that the knowledge to create change already exists within them, their cultures, and their communities. There is a need for our young people to have the skills to lift their vision higher and see the things keeping their communities in inequity - this is why we must equip and support our rangatahi to do systems change thinking and innovation. 

The retreat created space for youth to see themselves not just as future leaders, but as navigators -  capable of carrying culture, community, and innovation together as they shape the futures they want to see.