OCEANS BEFORE ME

Oceans Before Me Charitable Trust was set up in 2020 to empower our communities by elevating indigenous narratives. We identify expert indigenous orators, lyricists, songwriters to deconstruct indigenous history and political discourse, and promote and co-create hauora throughout Aotearoa, the Pacific, and the world. We use a variety of tools from an indigenous perspective, like whakapapa korero/storytelling, art, film, music, and mentoring, to alleviate harmful and systematic barriers to the wellbeing of primarily Pasifika and Maori communities. We co-create and co-facilitate events, activities, projects, workshops, mentoring sessions within communities, including in schools and prisons to empower and uplift Maori and Pasifika. The number of people dying by suicide in the last year has been the highest ever recorded, with a sharp increase among teenagers, Māori and Pasifika males. The statistics also show that Māori make up 52.8% of the prison population and a large factor of that in the recent year being Māori females, more specifically Māori mothers of sons. As parents to 4 young boys and 2 whāngai teenagers now young men, we are heavily aware that although we consider our boys to be separate from the numbers showing, they inevitably sit within that statistic as young Māori and Pasifika males. This is a concern we carry deeply not only for the safety of our own boys but for our people at large, having close friends and whānau members dealing with depression and mental health issues to loosing loved ones to suicide, or being incarcerated. This reality is immense. All factors point to a great lack of connectedness to identity, culture and trustworthy relationships. Our hope is to reinstate that identity and cultural origin through our Indigenous narratives connecting us, purposely growing stronger relationships. Founders Glynn and Daphiney Owen.