Hanipale Galo considers it an absolute privilege to be on-board the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) vaka, in its journey towards a thriving and prosperous Pacific Aotearoa.
The New Zealand-born Tokelauan, who grew up in Porirua, has recently joined MPP as the Tupu Aotearoa National Programme Manager, overseeing the Ministry initiative which helps Pacific people across the country to find employment, complete further training or study.
Hanipale hopes his individual impact will play a small part of what will be a collective effort to achieve the Lalanga Fou goals of thriving Pacific languages, cultures and identities; prosperous Pacific communities; resilient healthy Pacific communities; and confident, thriving and resilient Pacific young people.
Before accepting the role at MPP, Hanipale spent 18 months at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), and has spent most of his career in the corporate sector, Hanipale explains.
“My role at MBIE was primarily focused on developing and implementing targeted initiatives, aimed at supporting those who were furthest away from labour market, in addition to identifying successful programmes/initiatives which needed additional support to scale up their delivery,” he says.
He adds these experiences, along with others he has had, will hopefully add value to MPP.
Throughout his career, Hanipale has had numerous “touch points” with MPP, and more recently, monitoring the Tupu Aotearoa regional contract on behalf of MBIE.
“It had always been my intention to join MPP, but I wanted to ensure that when I did join, I could add real value.
“I definitely feel I'm in a better position to support the Ministry as opposed to where I was a few years ago, when the idea first crossed my mind.”
It has been awesome to watch the growth of Tupu Aotearoa and the Ministry from the outside and it is an absolute privilege to be able to jump on the vaka, Hanipale says.
“I want to acknowledge those who have laid the foundation and built a successful programme.
“It is an exciting but scary proposition to support the team, but I am hoping my experiences will only help further strengthen and grow the Tupu Aotearoa programme.”
A forward-focused Hanipale is excited about having a positive impact he can on Pacific Aotearoa, doing his bit to “change the world”.
“In all seriousness, I believe if I do my best each day and play my role, collectively as a Ministry and Pacific people our impact on Pacific Aotearoa will be huge.”