Tracy Atiga

Tracy Atiga (née Helleur) is the CEO of Kanaloa Rugby, a Pacific Island-owned professional rugby franchise. She is of Māori and Samoan descent and has played rugby union for Samoa.

Quotes

• That's why New Zealand Rugby was interested in this element in that they recognised there were very few formal Pacific people involved in off-field roles and so quite a Eurocentric system in terms of off-field administrative structures, and yet a really strong Pacific contribution on the field,"
  • [1]
• When we started to understand Pacific cultural ways of doing things, we connected up those approaches to leadership that we felt would be incredibly valuable to contribute to off-field leadership in rugby...a collectivist approach, a relational approach, a service orientation and an informal appreciation for acts of service and leadership."
  • [2]
• Immediately there there's going to be a difference in cultures - a Eurocentric culture versus a Pacific culture - and so what Navigating Two Worlds has done is enabled the two distinct cultures to come together and for the best of it to be drawn out in a leadership sense
  • [3]
• But one of the key things that came out of the barriers, and it was supported by a lot of people, was number one the lack of communication within clubs and the lack of opportunity to conduit between the Pasifika community and the leaders of the community in the club space, and then another issue was the fear of failure or embarrassment to put yourself out there."
  • [4]