Tiketi Auega is a Cultural Competency Specialist with particular expertise in providing best practice strategies when engaging communities of Pacific Nations heritage.  He holds postgraduate qualifications in Cultural Anthropology and Pacific Pedagogy.  

In his professional career, Tiketi is a professional educator with expertise across the compulsory, private, and tertiary education sectors in NZ.  As a community leader, he has been bestowed the Samoan chiefly title (matai) of Maugana’i from his maternal village of A’ufaga. 

In a previous role, Tiketi acted in the role of Pacific Cultural Capability Lead for the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, NZ Government (2023 - 2024).  Here he delivered cultural capability workshops which profiled the Ministry’s flagship tools referred to as the Kapasa (Pacific Policy), and Yavu (Pacific Community Engagement) tools.   

In 2023, Tiketi collaborated with Moni Hogg (Safety Differently Specialist), with the support of Work Safe NZ, and Horticulture NZ, to co-facilitate and pilot Yavu (Pacific community engagement) workshops with organisations that engaged with Pacific RSE (Recognised Seasonal Employers) workers.  As a result of the collaboration, the key findings derived from a range of participant perspectives, offer valuable insights for the presentation.