Day 3 of the OFC Women’s Football Conference saw delegates participate in an executive and organisational coaching workshop run by Pae Tauārai.
A key element of the OFC Women’s Football Conference has been taking the opportunity to upskill and develop the participants in a way that’s culturally relevant and beneficial, explains conference organiser and OFC Women’s Development Manager Ashleigh Cox.
“While I’ve been travelling around the Pacific this year, I’ve understood that many of our MAs work very differently. The way that we empower them and get them to bring the best of themselves, is all very different,” she explains.
To ensure participants got the most out of their professional development, Pae Tauārai were engaged to facilitate a one-day Level Up workshop – led by Angela Wallbank, a former Cook Islands representative and familiar face in Oceania football.
“Bringing in Angela, who obviously has a background in football, but is also an executive coach, and has that Pacific background, was really important to me. We need people that are relevant to the people that we work with,” said Cox.
“Often we are put in frameworks that are very Westernised,” explained Wallbank.
“They don’t necessarily align with Māori or Pacific values, the way that they see the world or the way that they actually exist in worlds. And that doesn’t mean that there’s Māori, there’s Pasifika and there’s something else – it actually means everything’s integrated.
“But how do you bring your whole self to what you’re doing? Because we know that when you bring your whole self, you are getting the best out of you, and you’re able to deliver on the things that you want to deliver on.”
Level Up uses Māori and Cook Islands Māori frameworks Te Korekoreka and Pito’enua respectively to explore goal setting and wellbeing.
Te Korekoreka is “a Māori framework, and it’s about Māori future making,” said Wallbank.
“It’s a model left by the ancestors of Ngāi Tahu and it’s based on the creation story. The key thing about that is it’s cyclic – so you can go backwards and forward. It’s very much like the values that Māori and Polynesian people live: when you harvest, when you fish, the lifecycle of a tree, all of those sorts of things.
“That connection back to there is really important to actually understand you just need to know where you’re grounded right now so then you can make your next steps forward.”
Pito’enua is a holistic wellbeing model developed in the Cook Islands based on the metaphor of a vaka.
“If you can understand how to get your vaka nice and strong, you can hit your destination. You can go on those journeys and hopefully you’re not going to capsize. But if you do capsize, you understand what skills you need and things like that so that you can turn it back over and keep on your journey,” Wallbank explained.
By exploring the ideas of wellbeing and goalsetting through these frameworks, the aim was for workshop participants to lay a strong foundation to go about achieving their goals for women’s football, says Wallbank.
“All of these women here are heading for the same goals, trying to achieve the same things, those bigger visions, those bigger strategies. But they actually have to be able to do it on the ground in their member associations, which are tiny compared to the big organisations like FIFA and OFC.”