//055 Laura O'Connell Rapira

Laura O’Connell Rapira (Te Ātiawa, Ngāruahine, Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Whakaue) is a community organiser, campaigner and writer.

She started her career organising events, before moving on to charity fundraising. However, she got pulled into a different direction when she started RockEnrol, a youth-powered campaign to get more young people out to vote. In 2014 she joined ActionStation and became their director. Since then, she has worked with communities nationwide around steps towards economic fairness, climate protection, human rights, global peace and honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

In this episode we laugh about the irony of being full-time paid activist, we discuss some of her recent highlights, like the move to make Matariki a public holiday, and, we talk about her next chapter with the Foundation for Young Australians.