Brooke Hawe

Bachelor of Communication (Public Relations and Media Studies), 2011

I’m the Mātanga Matua Pāoho Mōwaho / Senior External Communications Advisor for Wakatū Incorporation, a Māori incorporation with a diverse portfolio spanning property, food and beverage, and research and innovation.

At its core, my role is about helping our people understand complex information and feel confident engaging with important decisions that affect our organisation.

No two days are the same. I might be developing communication strategies for our businesses, responding to media enquiries, preparing presentations and speaking notes, advising senior leaders, filming content, supporting our marketing with communication and cultural advice, or writing reports.

In recent years, navigating economic, political and climate uncertainty has made clear communication more important than ever. Much of my work involves translating complex and sometimes confronting information into something accessible, meaningful and actionable, so people can make informed decisions.

Two fundamentals from my studies continue to shape my work every day. The first is the value of a simple communication strategy. As your career progresses, you’re often given responsibility for larger and more complex projects, and it can be difficult to know where to start. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I go back to the basics: what are we trying to achieve, who are we talking to, what do they need to know, how will we reach them, and how will we know we’ve succeeded?

The second is understanding your audience. In my experience, organisations are usually very clear about what they want to say and achieve, but they’re not always as focused on how their message will be received. Taking the time to understand your audience’s perspective often makes the difference between communication that is simply delivered and communication that is genuinely effective.

If there is one skill that has been most valuable throughout my career, it’s adaptability. While planning and being proactive are important, communication is rarely predictable. In the 15 years I’ve been working, I’ve experienced significant technological, political, economic and organisational change. Some of it has been exciting, and some of it has been extremely challenging.

The ability to pivot, learn new things and respond to change without losing your enthusiasm is incredibly important. Communication professionals are often helping others navigate uncertainty, so you need to be comfortable doing the same yourself.

That lesson applies beyond day-to-day work. Looking back, some of the changes in my career were deliberate, but some of the best opportunities came from paths I had never planned to take. Be open to opportunity when it presents itself, as scary as that can sometimes be. As the whakataukī says: “E rere te huata, kapohia!”

I originally chose the Bachelor of Communication at Massey because, towards the end of high school, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I knew I enjoyed journalism, communication felt broad and interesting, and Massey was close by, so it seemed like the easiest option and better than doing nothing. At the time, it felt more like a practical decision than a carefully mapped-out career plan. Looking back, I’ve come to appreciate that it’s perfectly normal not to know what you want to do at 18, and to figure things out along the way.

It took time to settle in and find a path forward. My first couple of years at Massey were really about exploration: what was I interested in, and was there a career path that aligned with those interests? It wasn’t until my third year that I became more confident about the path ahead and what would be required to get me there. I found my passion for film and media through media studies, which, despite being my minor, shaped the future of my career.

One of my first professional experiences was an internship with the New Zealand International Film Festival just before I graduated. It gave me a behind-the-scenes look at an established nationwide event and helped me apply what I’d learned at university in a real-world environment.

More importantly, it showed me that communication could be creative, fast-paced and genuinely exciting. It also reinforced that work could be something you truly enjoy, rather than simply something you do.

My first job, as a Junior Publicist for Whakaata Māori, then known as Māori Television, was a huge milestone in my life. Not only was it my first role after university, but I also moved cities for the opportunity, settling somewhere that would become home for the next decade.

Over those ten years, I built a career in film and television communications, working with leading distributors and studios such as Roadshow, 20th Century Fox, and Universal Pictures and helping release some of the biggest and most critically acclaimed films of the decade. It was fast-paced, challenging work, and I loved it. It gave me opportunities I could never have imagined while sitting in a lecture theatre at Massey.

As I’ve grown, my career has evolved alongside the person I’m becoming. If you look at my career history, you can probably see what was important to me at different points in my life. For a long time, what I did for work and how I saw myself were one and the same. A mentor in my current role shared a piece of advice I’ll never forget: “What we do isn’t who we are.” It’s one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned, particularly in a world that places so much importance on professional success and identity.

At the same time, exploring my own identity, particularly my whakapapa, has influenced where I choose to direct my skills and expertise. For the past four years, I’ve had the privilege of living and working on my tūrangawaewae and serving my iwi, hapū and whānau. It has been some of the most meaningful work I’ve ever done, and some of the hardest.

My career has taken me from film and entertainment communications to strategic communications, engagement and advisory roles. While the industries have changed, the common thread has always been helping people connect through stories. What I now know about myself is that my work needs to have purpose. Being able to use my skills in service of my community has been one of the greatest highlights of my career.