Voices In The House

Now we’re into the second part of the book: what does it mean to have a voice in Aotearoa New Zealand. Although there’s not as many digital sources on voice as there is on identity in its broadest sense, there’s still plenty of interesting resources out there. Of particular relevance to this chapter, Voices in the House, is this episode of Re-think on getting young people involved in politics. In it, Stacey Morrison talks with Natalie Coates, Richard Thornton, Tamati Coffey and Brittany Raleigh about what it means to have a political voice and what might encourage people to participate in national elections. Also from Rethink is the following episode which looks at making the parliamentary system more responsive.

The following is a great example of academics working in partnership with industry, government and the social sector to effect change: Design+Democracy have drawn on the social research and the principles of user-centred design to produce numerous Apps that encourage political engagement.

By now you’ve probably already visited The Wireless. We encourage you to revisit the site now and search for ‘voting’. A whole range of interesting and relevant audio files, videos, articles and comments on political engagement and young people will come up.

Finally, take a look at the Electoral Commission’s website reporting on the 2014 Value our Vote conference. The conference was concerned with poor voter turnout and the website includes a series of videos from a range of presenters speaking on specific groups of New Zealanders (e.g. young people, Pasifika, Māori, migrants) and their civic participation.