Aotearoa
FUTURES
barometer
Aotearoa
FUTURES
barometer
In an increasingly complex and ever changing world we are being confronted daily by new and often scary challenges outside of our control. Naturally, alongside these challenges comes growing fear about the future imbuing thoughts of a grim decline rather than a sense of optimism for what is to come.
How do we make a shift to create a future we want our children to inherit? To begin to answer that question, we first need to gain an understanding of how our current generations are feeling about what comes next.
The Aotearoa Futures Barometer is a research project carried out by Tokona te Raki, Think Beyond and Truwind Research. It takes as its starting point a Danish survey, the Copenhagen Futures Barometer, that looked at concerns and expectations of the future conducted by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. We have created our own Aotearoa specific version to gain a sense of how New Zealanders are feeling about the future, to enable us to think creatively about potential solutions that will positively impact our next generations.
“Creating a future of our own making is the most powerful expression of rangatiratanga we can achieve. However, we know that to do this requires first having insight into how New Zealanders feel about an inclusive future, and an understanding of what matters most to them in shaping that future. Our job then is figuring out how we work towards it with intention.”
- Āwhina McGlinchey, Kaiwhakatere, Tokona te Raki
A snapshot of key findings
New Zealand comes out on top
Despite the rapid influx of, and increasingly complex challenges we are constantly facing, there is no other country most New Zealanders would want us to be like.
How do we build on what we currently have and find a way to come together to build the future Aotearoa that is 100 percent unrivalled?
Te Tiriti matters
Underpinning this is confirmation that New Zealanders see the Treaty of Waitangi as important to our future – Almost 60 percent of those who completed the survey believe the Treaty of Waitangi is important to our future.
Big issues overshadow personal optimism
While there appears to be personal optimism for the future, there is concern over those bigger issues people see as the key threats they don’t have any influence over e.g., the economy, climate change and AI.
Young people have concerns
When we talk about the future and intergenerational worldviews, young people as the ones who will inherit the future are a critical voice – the survey tells us that over 50 percent of those who completed it are increasingly concerned about how we meet their needs.
Fragmentation of our social and political fabric plays a significant role in how we feel – our levels of trust, our sense of hope, feelings of fairness and justice and most importantly, our connectedness and cohesion as a society.
“In a world of constant change it is important to step back and measure the heartbeat of our country for today and into the future. While the world may be in turmoil one thing is clear. New Zealanders prefer to live here.
The words of Sir Paul Callaghan spring to mind, a vision of New Zealand as a ‘place where talent wants to live’. The Aotearoa Futures Barometer opens a door to ongoing conversation about the future we want, within the local and global context, and helps us to anticipate that future.”
- Cheryl Doig, Think Beyond
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