Speakers

Keynote speaker: Sheila Babuata

A daughter of the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands, Sheila is an indigenous community leader and advocate for decolonization, demilitarization, and environmental justice. Her work spans from the village to regional and global spaces, advocating with organizations such as the Friends of the Mariana Trench, Young Pacific Leaders, and Obama Leaders: Asia Pacific. As an elected official she served in key leadership positions in the CNMI Legislature and led environmental and health initiatives. She is passionate about leadership development, personal growth, and collective healing. Sheila has been recognized as the 2023 "Environmental Champion" and "Environmentalist of the Year", and envisions the transformation of an abandoned shopping mall and resort in her village to serve as spaces for culture, arts, and community.

Vicktoria Blake

Vicktoria has been working in sustainability and conservation for almost 20 years. She became the Sustainability Manager at Bay of Plenty District Health Board in 2019. She led the Climate Change Working Group for Interim Health New Zealand and was Interim Head of Sustainability for Te Whatu Ora | Health New Zealand until February 2024. Vicktoria is now working as the Principal Advisor on Climate Risk and Resilience for Te Whatu Ora. She is a co-chair of Sustainable Healthcare Aotearoa and is on the executive board of the OraTaiao Climate and Health Council.

Donna Burns

Donna Burns is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Indigenous Doctor’s Association. She is a proud Wiradjuri descendant with extensive experience in executive leadership and Governance with a particular focus on improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health outcomes, and health system reform.

This experience is underpinned by Donna’s many decades in the healthcare sector, as a Registered Nurse, with postgraduate qualifications in Emergency Nursing. She previously used this experience to lead her own consultancy work, specialising in organisational change and leadership development.  Donna is currently focused on growing and advancing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical workforce, while championing a culturally safe health system for all our peoples.

Association Professor Rhys Jones

Associate Professor Rhys Jones Rhys Jones (Ngāti Kahungunu) is a public health physician and Associate Professor in Māori Health at Waipapa Taumata Rau / the University of Auckland. He has a leadership role in Māori Health teaching and learning in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. Rhys’s research addresses Indigenous health and health equity, with an emphasis on environmental wellbeing and decolonial approaches to planetary health. He is a passionate advocate for health equity, Indigenous rights and climate justice. Rhys was a founding co-convenor of OraTaiao: The New Zealand Climate and Health Council and is co-director of Climate Health Aotearoa.

Associate Professor George Laking

Associate Professor George Laking (Hōri Laking, Te Whakatōhea) is a medical oncologist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, and co-host of the Tāmaki conference hub. George has been an executive member of OraTaiao the NZ Climate and Health Council since its foundation. His primary work is alongside Hei Āhuru Mōwai Māori Cancer Leadership Aotearoa, to develop community-based models of specialist health care. In his spare time George enjoys bikepacking and kayak touring in the whenua.

Josie McClutchie

Josie McClutchie (Rongomaiwahine) is a project coordinator and communications support worker based in Tairāwhiti. Over the past three years, she has been involved in two large Tairāwhiti community-led research projects, which prompted a shift in her line of work. With a background in video and photography, she has moved into project and communications roles, using her visual and organisational skills to support research kaupapa grounded in community. She is currently providing part-time communications support to a Tairāwhiti place-based initiative and values the opportunity this new field of work brings to build stronger local connections and deepen her understanding of the community.

Dayna Raroa

Dayna Raroa (Ngāti Porou) is an artist, creative practitioner, and community researcher based in Te Tairāwhiti. Raised on her whānau whenua in Rangitukia, her work is grounded in whakapapa, whenua, and the strength of her East Coast community. Through Te Weu Charitable Trust, she supports Māori-led responses to climate and environmental issues, centring Indigenous knowledge and lived experience. Dayna also contributed to the Tairāwhiti Citizens’ Assembly, helping facilitate and guide conversations on land use and systems change. Her creative practice—spanning mixed media, and community-led projects is shaped by aroha, deep relationships, and a commitment to the people and place she calls home.

Professor Holly Thorpe

Professor Holly Thorpe (PhD) is a sociologist working in Te Huataki Waiora Division of Health at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. She is passionate about working across disciplines to understand the social, cultural and gendered complexities of youth and women's health and wellbeing. Since moving back to her hometown of Tairāwhiti, she has been collaborating with community researchers and partners with a focus on the impacts of climate change on health systems and community health and wellbeing.