I have always been brought up recognising that its okay to be who I am as a Maori, but also as what others term as ‘Keha’ or pakeha.  Throughout my upbringing I was really strong about knowing that my sister and I were of Maori, Tarara (Croatian) and Irish decent, and the ability to recognise how  that can benefit us as we grew older.

What it meant to be of ‘keha’ decent was just as tough and a struggle as it was to be Maori. This meant that for ‘keha’, we had to act and behave differently than that of being with our Maori whanau.  Differently meaning the way we spoke, dressed, behaved through to etiquette.  It also meant being careful regarding race relations, cultural politics and how to conduct ourselves working in a ‘bi-cultural society’.  The lesson was about utilising our backgrounds to the best of our ability when we needed to use it for either world we walked in – whether it be Te Ao Maori through to the European Westernised Society way.

Being a Senior Manager for most of my career, I can definitely say that when I needed to, I was able to take the advice once given to me about utilsing our backgrounds to the best of our ability.  It definitely got me through working for Whanau in a European context of business.  Being Maori otherwise referred to as being ‘Black’ and being Pakeha otherwise referred to as being ‘White’ means that in business, I had the best of both worlds of being both ethnicity’s and receiving “The Benefits of being Grey…”

I feel that the future of being a Maori Entrepreneur and utilising my backgrounds to my ability means that I will have the best of both worlds in business opportunities.  It means relating to our Maori community and being able to work alongside pakeha without being misrepresented in either sides perspectives, goals or objectives.  It means the ability to interpret objectives and relay them in a way that creates cohesive working opportunities beneficial for both worlds.  However, it means that those who recognise this trait or collaboration ability may have high expectations, but, while I’m on the course of defining What is an Entrepreneur or Entrepreneurship, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how I can maximise the benefits of being Grey for the success of Entrepreneurship.