Someone ensuring Queenstown’s whānau Māori community continues to strengthen is community volunteer Karmela Rapata.

From articulating a vision to bringing it to reality, she has become very influential in local Māori business and cultural circles, the latest example being the establishment of a kaupapa Māori space in Country Lane.

Allied with her warm personality, she is a deserving finalist in the hotly-contested ‘social impact innovator’ category in next week’s Spirit of the Wakatipu Awards.

Born in Hamilton but raised in Invercargill from the age of 2 — “two bogan towns in Aotearoa”, she quips — Karmela enjoys a rich lineage or whakapapa.

On her dad’s side she is Ngāti Maniapoto and Raukawa and on her mum’s she is Kāi Tahu (or Ngāi Tahu), Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha.

“I cannot be here without them, all of the things that have been passed down and that I have in my DNA, that walks with me every day,” she says.

“My work ethic and strength in community comes from my mother and my visionary [side] comes from my dad.”

Educated at Southland Girls’ High, Karmela studied “lots of different things” at Otago Uni, graduating with a B.Comm.

She then made her first move to Queenstown, working in reservations and sales for Nomad Safaris and learning how the tourism distribution chain works.

Next she moved to Melbourne, starting a 10-year career, including management roles, with an inbound tourism operator that also took her to London, Melbourne again and Auckland.

Karmela then responded to her sister Maria’s request to help her Queenstown business servicing Airbnbs and their guests in particular. 

In those pre-Covid she says she was shocked to see tourism had seemingly lost its social licence.

She and Maria then started their Check In business, focused on providing concierge services to visitors staying in private accommodation and also hooking them up with authentic local people and experiences.

Grounded in manaakitanga, the business had to weather Covid initially but has since come into its own.

Karmela then joined the board of the KUMA Southern Māori Business Network which operated in Otago/Southland but had not had a Queenstown presence.

A highlight of her five years — she left the board this year — was organising a week-long Queenstown-based celebration of local Māori businesses, including a fashion show for Māori/Pasifika designers.

She has continued to champion local Māori-owned businesses, whether they sell Māori products or services or not.

“We’re just bringing visibility to it, and helping them connect to people that can help them grow.
“And Māori-owned businesses tend to have multiple bottom lines, and that’s a really important difference — it’s more than just economic growth.”

A highlight this year has been co-founding the kaupapa Māori space, Tātai Manawa, at Frankton’s Country Lane, “because our whānau have been talking about it for a long, long time”.

It was initially established to celebrate Matariki — “it was originally going to be two weeks, then a whole month, but halfway through we saw the potential and the possibility when we gathered as whānau Māori and shared that with our wider community, so we had to keep it”.

Though it could be termed a Māori arts and cultural centre, Karmela says it is much broader than that.

“In three months, the amount of connections, gathering, kaupapa that’s been stood up, it’s incredible.

“I’m the holder of the vision, and I will protect it fiercely.

“It can be a business hub, it can be a cultural arts centre, it can be a wellness space for our whānau, it can be a podcast studio.

“The foundation which Tātai Manawa is creating reaches beyond those four walls, we are helping whānau activate their passions out there in the community as well.”

Karmela is clear her focus is “helping our whānau Māori build, grow, stand strong, but that helps all of us”.

However, she also helps in other spheres — for example, sitting on the board of local neurodiversity charity, Pivotal Point.

Though she co-owns a business, she admits most of her work is voluntary — “if I could turn that into a job that wasn’t extractive, I would”.

“Activating kaupapa, activating people, connecting people, building relationships, it’s one of my superpowers, I’d say.

“But it’s a lot — it’s a lot if you’re creating a vision, but also doing the mahi and holding all the detail.

“The leaders of our community are burning out all the time.”

Ironically, though Karmela walks in te ao Māori every day, she is learning te reo — “I wasn’t raised in te reo Māori but I am fiercely reclaiming it”.

She is currently studying levels 3 and 4 at SIT Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

Away from work, whether voluntary or paid, Karmela feels fortunate to live at Bob’s Cove.

“It’s nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of town and escape there.

“And the community out there are incredible, they’re very strong on environmental focus.

“It’s a beautiful place to be and it’s a beautiful reminder of what our community could be if we were living in te taiao [the natural world].”

scoop@scene.co.nz