Thirty Young Pacific Leaders gather in Auckland for YPL Navigating the digital landscape workshop, with a focus on truth, transparency and technology.
Story is somebody’s truth.
This is the message Dr John Trybus has emphasized to 30 Young Pacific Leaders gathered in Auckland, New Zealand for the YPL Navigating the digital landscape workshop, with a focus on truth, transparency and technology.
The YPL cohort stem from 20 countries in the region and are taking part in the four-day workshop, hosted by the United States Department of State and Pacific Cooperation Broadcasting Limited, who is funded by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).
It is being held simultaneously, with PCBL’s CEO’s Conference, a biennial gathering of our Pacific broadcasting and wider industry partners.
Based in Washington DC, John is a Professor of Social Impact and Academic Director of the Center for Social Impact Communication at Georgetown University and has spent the past two weeks in New Zealand on a cultural exchange, after hosting YPL Fellow Nicole Stanton, last year.
Dr John Trybus
“I was really excited to be invited to be a host institution at Georgetown University…and now I have the opportunity to be in New Zealand for an exchange,” John says.
“It’s an opportunity for me to learn…and to do more listening and less speaking, which is wonderful.”
John’s career has focused on the intersection of social impact, community engagement, and storytelling, and how those topics need to work together and to support each other, he explains.
People are composed of stories
While talking to the YPL cohort ahead of the workshop, John says he believes people are composed of stories, shaped by lived experiences.
“It is important to keep telling your own stories because who knows those stories better?
“Story is somebody’s personal truth; it is based upon their lived experience.
“As we think about this notion of telling your own story, it’s about respecting that – it is ensuring that it’s told in the way that you want it to be.
“That’s also an act of courage and preservation.”
During his short visit to New Zealand, John says he has seen many similarities to the United States when it comes to storytelling.
“What is the same is really the importance in storytelling and thinking about storytelling in not just to transactional sense but very much in a transformational sense.
“It is also about story listening, it’s also about story convening and it is also about story amplification.
“And I’ve come to realize that New Zealand is a really good, great place to see that in action.”
By sharing stories, people let others in and help them understand their personal experiences, he adds.
“What better way to connect with people is there than that? I don’t think there’s much else.”
Profound experience for YPL Fellow
Taking part in a fellowship program in the United States is something Nicole (Ngāpuhi) never imagined for herself.
YPL Fellow Nicole Stanton.
Hailing from Matauri Bay in the Far North of New Zealand, Nicole is a Community Development Advisor at Whangārei District Council, and got into the program while studying her Masters of Sustainable Development Goals, she explains.
“I had the opportunity to opt for a practicum and was looking for unique opportunities to use my skills and broaden that beyond New Zealand, while also bringing the unique spaces that I bring…and this fellowship opportunity popped up.”
Nicole was one of 18 YPL Fellows selected from across the Pacific, and the only participant from New Zealand.
“My time in the States was kind of a pinch myself moment to be able to be in a place surrounded by 18 Pacific Fellows.
“It built a community, a sense of belonging and somewhere I had actually never realized that I would find.”
Bringing newfound knowledge back to New Zealand and sharing it along with having the opportunity to challenge herself, is both a blessing and privilege, she adds.
While in Washington DC, Nicole worked with John on various projects, including an oral history project, where the pair were interviewing a lot of people who have been influenced by the late English primatologist and anthropologist, Jane Goodall.
“It was pretty incredible because at the time, the first day that I met John, Jane had actually passed away sadly, and it was an opportunity for us to instantly bond.
“Grieving is something that you never want to go through the experience when you first meet somebody, but it’s actually allowed us to trust each other and open up and then really bond and care about this project and treat it with sensitivity.”
Nicole encourages anyone interested in the YPL Fellowship Program to give it a go.
“Overall, the experience was so much more than I had ever dreamt of it being, and it completely humbled me.
“I’m still kind of finding little bits where I’m challenging myself.”
Plus, she has made a network of YPL Fellows to stay connected to, and inspired by, she adds.
Aside from the talanoa with John and Nicole, the YPL cohort also took a tour of TVNZ, introduced themselves and expressed what they hope to gain from the workshop, which gets underway officially tomorrow, at the New Zealand International Conference Centre.
Visit the Young Pacific Leaders website for more information about the US Department of State program.