This article is written by Stephen Day, Communications Manager, Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa.

  • The problem: Small government agencies do not have enough power or resources to make changes on their own.
  • Why it matters: Small government agencies have specialist skills and legitimacy that can support innovative community projects rather than forcing change on communities.
  • The solution: Storytelling is an important tool for government agencies that take on the first-follower role of supporting community groups. But first-follower storytelling differs from traditional storytelling.

When I meet someone new at a party and tell them who I work for, nobody has ever heard of my workplace. Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa is the smallest government agency in a relatively small country, New Zealand. We have the very niche task of protecting and enhancing legal public access to the outdoors.

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Because we are so small, we learned that we cannot achieve much on our own. We don’t have enforcement officers. We don’t have advertising budgets that can buy ‘cut-through’ on television. And we don’t have widespread name recognition that brings power and prestige. If we are lucky, we warrant a sentence or two on any briefing to our Minister. When we huff and puff, we don’t blow down any walls.

Why we need communities to lead us

We have much better success when we help other people achieve their goals than when we try to make things happen without their drive and inspiration. We are specialists who can help passionate people achieve a very specific thing. But we need a community of people to lead us.

A good example of this is our support for the Māori communities on New Zealand’s East Coast. They want to create Te Ara Tipuna — a 500 kilometre trail from Gisborne to Ōpōtiki connecting 22 communities and 64 marae (local community gathering places). When it is built, Te Ara Tipuna, which translates as the path of the ancestors, will be a cultural experience reconnecting families, land and stories. The communities creating Te Ara Tipuna have an innovative vision, a commitment to bring that vision to reality and inspiring stories to tell.

By sharing the stories and perspectives of the communities we support, we, as first followers, can create a sense of authenticity and relatability.

We, Herenga ā Nuku, have a specific set of skills that help those communities to create legal public access over land. And we have a bucket of enthusiasm to help make their idea a reality.

The story a first follower tells is different

We have learned that we are good at being a first follower. People or communities with good ideas need a first follower to support their vision. A first follower provides public legitimacy. Because we are a government agency with a particular but highly valued skill set, we are ideally placed to give that legitimacy. Te Ara Tipuna is an inspiring idea. And because we are supporting it, it now has backing from the government agency that specialises in public access.

That means storytelling is at the heart of our communication strategy. There are two reasons for this.

The first is that we need people to see themselves in the work. They need to own and lead that work. If we claim it as a government project, it will fail.

Secondly, more importantly, the work is other people’s work. The dream is other people’s dream. So, we must tell their story rather than inform them as though they are passive recipients of a government service. If we claim the information as government information rather than telling the story of the people who initiated the project, we are lying and stealing.

The story a first follower tells is different to the story a project leader tells.

One of the essential traits of a story told by a first follower is that the telling happens before the story has an ending. The story is still taking place, and we do not know how it will finish. We do not know if the hero and their band of followers take the right path. Worse, what might be a happy ending for one set of readers could well be a travesty for others.

Because of this, the stories we tell are unlikely to be as satisfying as stories that pure storytellers or advertisers tell. Like all good government agencies, we place a higher premium on honesty than persuasion.

The never-ending story

We do not know if Te Ara Tipuna will succeed. We hope it will, but we can’t offer that as the ending to our story. Last year, it suffered a massive setback when a huge cyclone destroyed infrastructure, homes and livelihoods all along the East Coast of New Zealand. The project team regathered. They reimagined their pathway as part of a much-needed resilience response to climate change-induced storms. Their story shifts but continues, unending. As Māori say, āke, ake, ake (evermore upwards, on and on).

Because we are one of the first to tell the story — and in doing so, encourage others to follow and support alongside us — our story can only ever be an unfinished first draft. We can introduce the key characters in the story and the challenges they will face. We can describe the first steps they have taken on their heroic journey. But we will not get to tell of the climatic action scenes or the satisfying denouement. Our storytelling is more akin to that of a movie trailer than the movie itself.

By sharing the stories and perspectives of the communities we support, we, as first followers, can create a sense of authenticity and relatability. We add weight and legitimacy to those communities’ hard work. We make it easier for others to join the movement. By allowing ourselves to be inspired by other people’s great dreams and to share that inspiration publicly, we create a sense of shared purpose. It’s not our story, and we don’t know how it will end. But we know we want to find out, and we want to share it with others so they can join the journey, too.

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