The Rangatahi Creative Hub

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For Christchurch-based Luke Siaki, working with youth is ‘a calling.’ It’s something he’s done for the last five years as a fulltime youth clinician with Enabling Youth. Now, as the founder of Rangatahi Creative, he is focussing on encouraging rangatahi to reach their full potential.

Established in July 2022 with the help of RUIA funding from Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu, Rangatahi Creative is a hub and a safe space for a dozen rangatahi to visit two nights a week, where they can learn new skills and gain self-confidence for their future outcomes.

“A lot of kids fall through the cracks after school,” says Luke.

“Some in fact, are missing school altogether and they may have become involved in theft or getting into fights. I wanted to create a hub to introduce them to positive activities that would encourage and inspire them to be the best they can be.”

Luke, who mentors the group with his friend Tiriati Dawson, is introducing rangatahi to videography, photography, barbering, podcasting, blogging, content creation, music production, gaming, streaming and arts and crafts.

“There are a heap of talented kids out there but they often don’t have the knowledge, the resources or the self-belief to know where to start. I wanted Rangatahi Creative to be a place where they could discover new opportunities and possibly bridge that gap between school to the workforce.”

A former fitness instructor/trainer at Canterbury Sports Performance Centre and a self-taught videographer, Luke runs his own freelance vidography business in conjunction with fulltime youth work. He says he simply sat down in the beginning asked himself what he would have wanted as a young person.

“I didn’t want to sit back and complain, I wanted to do something positive to bring out the best in kids who may not have always had the encouragement and the belief they need,” he says.

It’s been a win-win for everyone involved and Luke has been amazed at the early response. He says parents have been incredibly pleased and supportive of his venture and the rangatahi themselves are already building strong relationships within the group and developing an awareness of new skills.

In addition to exposure to new skills, rangatahi also have the opportunity to talk through any anxieties they may feel and Luke’s wife, Shanelle (Te Arawa), prepares kai for them.

“The hardest thing is always that there are many more kids out there who could benefit from programmes like this and because we have limits on the numbers we can take for our one-year course, I do find it very hard to turn others away,” Luke says.

In the meantime though, he is dreaming big – hoping for the day when he can expand and run his new programme fulltime; and he is grateful for the way RUIA funding has helped establish the initiative.

“We couldn’t have done this without them. We may have had the ideas but we didn’t have the resources and funding has enabled us to kit out our space with computers, couches, microphones, music tools and everything else we need.

“There’s nothing else like this in Christchurch and we have young people (aged 12-16) coming from as far away at Pines Beach to take part. It’s definitely helping kids keep out of trouble. It’s showing them a different way to be and it’s equipping them with skills that can help them decide what they want to do with their lives.”

Mōrena whānau,

We are back for another round for Term 2. We have a few open lots for rangatahi to join our kaupapa. If you are keen or know anyone that would benefit from our creative hub please let us know.

Ngā mihi,
The Rangatahi Creative Hub

Rangatahi we are back for 2023 tomorrow (Monday) night from 3:45pm onwards. We have missed you all and can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings for all of us 🙌❤️💯

Kia ora whānau,

We all hope you have had awesome break over Christmas and New Years holidays. We are back on Monday the 13th of February. At the moment we are just doing Monday nights till we get the whole crew back which won’t be long. When that happens we will be opening up Thursdays nights again too. We have missed you all and can’t wait to hear what you have all been up to. Much love whānau. Not long now 🙌💯

Whakawhanaungatanga 🤝

All our tamariki amd rangatahi that has been in the creative hub this term. We are all meeting at Denny’s Moorehouse at 5pm tomorrow night (Monday). If you need a ride there. Be at the hub before 4:15pm ❤️ let’s celebrate as we sign off this year. Thank you to everyone that supported this new kaupapa this year. We are just getting warmed up 🔥 we will be turning up the heat next year 💯

Tēnā koutou,

Just a reminder that the creative hub is not on tomorrow (17th Nov) as we have a evening work hui to attend. We will be back on Monday 21st Nov.

Our last day for the year is the Monday 5th of December for our hub nights but doors are still open to creative members to come through in the break to use equipment for podcasts, video editing, barber station etc and will we be back operating on Monday 13th of Feb 2023.

Ngā mihi to everyone that has supported our kaupapa and hope to finish this year strong and come back stronger than ever next year ❤️💯

Shoutout to Vai tonight for stepping out of his comfort zone and gave his fellow creative brother Niutama a fresh new haircut.
Awesome mahi Vai 💈💯

Also if anyone wants to tautoko our rangitahi by either being a model or just donating some time to kick back with our rangatahi and show some love and maybe share some wisdom for our future generation send us a message ❤️

Ngā mihi to the brother Antzz for coming down lastnight and giving a few of our rangatahi a impactful introduction in the area of music production. It was an honour to have you and we appreciate your time you gave us 🙏❤️

Mōrena whānau,
Just a reminder that the creative hub is not on today due to public holiday and we will definitely be back on Thursday. This Thursday we will also be having Antonio ( Antzz Music ) coming in to spend some time with our rangatahi that are focusing in the creative area of music. We are very grateful to have him coming in to share his knowledge, time and talent with us. So rangatahi make sure you come through 🔥💯

It’s all aroha (love) here ❤️ and the fact that we know every one of our rangatahi that is at the hub Monday and Thursday night is safe, well feed and looked after while having the opportunity to build whanaungatanga (relationship) is a blessing 🙏🏾💯

Are there any beat makers / producers out there that have any beats that they are willing to koha or sell. These boys got bars like W***y Wonka 😂 and need to deliver them asap 🍫🙌💯

Our rangatahi all come from different walks of life but one thing is for sure. When we come together we are whānau 🙌💯

Mōrena whānau,

Luke & Tiraiti are back on the floor tonight and will be reopening the creative hub for our rangatahi. We have missed you all and can’t wait to get back to creating and planning with the crew. It’s going to be an amazing time this term. We have a few new rangatahi coming on board too which is awesome.

Ngā mihi for all your support ❤️🙌💯

Awesome to see our space being utilised tonight by father and son, Atama and Manu. If there are any other fathers game enough to cut their sons hair then send us a message ❤️

Fathers if you would like some father and son bonding time while having a go at giving your son a haircut. Contact us and make a free booking. We have all the barbering gear available for you to use. If you have more than one kid, bring them along and they can jam on the Xbox, play on the computers or do some art drawings while they wait 😊💈 we are always looking at ways to give back to our community ❤️💯

Solid mahi from one of our Rangatahi tonight. Dallys was able to work on a few ranagtahi and work his clipper game. We are really proud of him stepping out and utilising the resources and space we have available. If there are any models out there that are willing to support our ranagtahi barbers. Please send us a message they would appreciate it very much as they just want to become better and better. 💈🔥

And this is one of the reasons why The Rangatahi Creative Hub was created. To get our rangatahi away from all of this. To show them another light and that they have the potential to achieve great things. We provide a safe place for our ranagtahi to come through and be creative. We also kindly pull them aside from time to time and have one on one deep conversations about their goals and what they want to achieve in life. We support them and guide them and believe we need more of these hubs all around Christchurch.

Youth crime wave: Teenage vandals caught on camera in Rolleston

Too many of our rangatahi are falling through the cracks. Our mahi is to tautoko them and guide them before that even happens. Even though ”Rangatahi Creative” is a programme we are here to create a flourishing lifestyle for our rangatahi to know who they are and called to be ❤️🙌💯