Alyce Lysaght (tribal affiliations: Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Pākehā) has worn multiple ‘hats’ her whole life. Currently working as a water engineer at consultancy firm WSP New Zealand, she moves between two interconnected worlds; that of complex, highly technical infrastructure projects, and that of the Māori communities that stand to be impacted by such projects.
“It can be a bit of a delicate dance,” says Lysaght. “It comes with its challenges, but also opportunities. I think it’s really important – especially in engineering – to have people who can navigate both of those worlds, and in doing so aid the communication between them.”
Right now, that combination of skills is rare. Māori and Pasifika, the Indigenous peoples of New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, are significantly underrepresented in Aotearoa’s (New Zealand) engineering sector. Data from professional membership bodies show that just over 1% of Chartered Professional Engineers (CPEng) – those who have been assessed to have the highest level of technical credentials – come from these communities. Surveys carried out across all levels of the profession suggest that just 3% of working engineers in the country are Māori.
This is something that Lysaght wants to change. For her, a key part of forging a pathway for future Māori engineers is improving the visibility of those already in the sector. That’s what motivated her to launch the Māori in Engineering podcast, which features conversations between Lysaght and other engineers who are making waves in the sector, both in Aotearoa and overseas.
Making it happen
The first spark of podcast inspiration hit Lysaght when she was still an undergraduate engineering student at the University of Canterbury (UC), in Ōtautahi (Christchurch). She attended a virtual panel event hosted by Engineering New Zealand Te Ao Rangahau, the country’s professional engineering body that represents over 22,000 members. The panel featured four engineers from the construction sector: Chantelle Bailey (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hāmoa), Lincoln Timoteo (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa and Te Āti Awa), Warner Cowin (Ngāti Porou) and Troy Brockbank (Te Rarawa, Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi, Ngātiwai, Ngāti Kahu).
“That kōrero (discussion) was fascinating,” says Lysaght. “In lectures, I’d been learning about meaningful engagement with Māori, so had tried looking for Māori engineers; people who were actually walking the walk. And here were four of them, telling their stories, talking about their backgrounds, asking the big ‘why’ questions about the sector. I kept thinking about how we could make conversations like that more accessible, and thought maybe a podcast would work.”
After the webinar, Lysaght got in touch with Brockbank, a water engineer and one of the panellists, who encouraged her to act on that idea. A few months later, Brockbank was the first guest on Lysaght’s Māori in Engineering podcast.
To date, Lysaght has featured 27 guests who apply their engineering know-how to an array of industries – digital technology, stormwater management, spatial design, structural engineering and landscape architecture, to name a few.
The conversations are lively, relaxed and informal, and are focused on showcasing the guests as people first, and engineers second. This was a deliberate strategy from the outset, says Lysaght. “There’s still this idea that engineers are dull and boring and that they all look and sound a certain way,” she says. “I wanted to dispel that, to show that we’re all human, we’re still learning, still growing, and wanting to do better.”
Sharing stories
Lysaght says she’s been “amazed” by the reception to the podcast and its widespread reach. “I couldn’t have asked for a better response, to be honest,” she says. “It’s not just the messages on LinkedIn and emails from other engineers, but also from Māori working in other sectors, tauira (students) from different universities and rangatahi (young people) at high school who get in touch via Instagram. It’s exciting that it strikes a chord with lots of people.”
There are no plans to slow down any time soon, says Lysaght, who admits she still has a long wishlist of future guests. The only thing she is short on is time. Podcasting is not part of her day job – it’s a passion project, but one that has taught her many lessons. “It’s a privilege to be able to do this. To hear people’s stories and to put them out there for others to listen to and learn from as well,” she says. “So, no, it’s not something that I get paid to do, but it’s valuable.”
Lysaght was recently awarded a grant from Engineering New Zealand to support the production of the podcast for another year. This has allowed her to employ a design student to create imagery for each episode and to pay for website hosting. She’s also in discussions with an editor to help streamline her processes.
However, she says, the bulk of the funding will go to the guests themselves. “It was very important to me to find a way to adequately reward every kaikōrero (speaker),” says Lysaght. “These people are all really busy, but they still make time to speak with me. They have the option to donate the fee to another kaupapa (cause), but I think offering it is a really good step to empower and elevate those who are sharing their stories.”
Finding balance
The podcast has also been an important step on Lysaght’s own personal journey. She grew up in Ashburton, a town surrounded by rich agricultural land, located about an hour’s drive from Ōtautahi. Her mother is Māori and her father is the descendent of Irish immigrants.
The family relocated to Vietnam for several years while Lysaght was in primary school. As a result, she says, she spent a lot of her childhood being physically distant from her Māori roots. “It wasn’t until I went to the University of Canterbury that I began my journey of learning te reo (Māori language) and my whakapapa (Māori genealogy),” says Lysaght. “All of my exploration of te ao Māori (Māori world) has happened while I’ve been studying and working in engineering. The two are connected, for me.”
With support from UC Māori student organisation Te Akatoki, and that of her family and friends, Lysaght thrived at university. Alongside her studies – a bachelor of engineering with honours in natural resources engineering – she became deeply involved in the UC Student Volunteer Army; an experience she describes as “awesome”. “I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in my life!” she laughs. “But it was great to able to do something that was filling a gap and meeting the needs of our community.”
Lysaght somehow found time to gain an additional qualification – a diploma in global humanitarian engineering – which, she says “highlighted the role that engineers can play in protecting the environment”.
“For me,” she adds, “engineering is about creating something better with what’s already there. It’s really about learning from the past to go forward.”
A changemaker
Since entering the engineering workforce, Lysaght has continued her efforts to make the sector more inclusive and accessible. Encouraged by Sina Cotter Tait, a senior civil engineer and previous podcast guest, Lysaght put her name forward for a board position at Engineering New Zealand. “My first thought was ‘Okay, I’m not the type of person who’s likely to get in,’ but then I realised that even the act of nominating myself might inspire other young rangatahi to raise their voices and be confident. So, I did.”
While not successful in the election, Lysaght polled very highly. After reviewing all candidates and the skills of current members, the board offered her a spot as an emerging professional member, to represent recent graduates. “Engineering New Zealand is the strategic lever of the industry, so it’s really cool that they’re giving that bandwidth for someone like me, who is just at the start of their career, be a part of the board and learn how it all works. And to help shape the organisation in a positive way for the future,” says Lysaght.
What’s next on the agenda for Lysaght? “I want to continue to navigate bridging the two worlds between Māori and engineering, in all of its forms,” she says. “Improving capacity, offering support, enabling meaningful engagement and outreach with rangatahi to help them enter the sector. I want to keep podcasting, getting better at governance – everything. At the moment, I am pretty comfortable with the path that I’m on. It’s a busy time, but it’s also exciting.”
Story by Laurie Winkless