Born and raised in a rugby community, young Kiwi leader Arizona Leger is living her dream, working towards gender equality in sport across the globe.
Arizona Leger has represented Aotearoa New Zealand around the globe, brainstorming with some of the world’s brightest young minds.
Whether she’s discussing the rights of indigenous people at the G(irls)20 Summit for young women in Tokyo, or leadership styles at TEDx Youth in Auckland, 25-year-old Leger proudly leads with her whakapapa in everything she does.
And that includes on the sidelines of rugby fields, all the way up to a governance level as an emerging director on the Counties Manukau Rugby Union board, and working on next year's Rugby World Cup here in Aotearoa.
Leger - a 2021 Young New Zealander of the Year nominee - descends from Te Rarawa and Whakatōhea, and through her father, she's connected to the islands of Samoa, Tonga and Fiji.
“I proudly walk around and make sure that in the spaces I navigate, those are the first things I think about - my people from all of those different parts of the whenua,” she says. Family lines also extend to Ngāpuhi and Te Aupōuri.
“I also feel like if rugby was a nationality, I would be part-rugby. I would be part-sport,” laughs Leger.
She's been volunteering with the union since she was seven when her dad, Gus Leger, was a rugby development officer there. He’s also a former Steeler rugby player and Black Sox softball international.
Arizona has ventured into another part of rugby in the last month. After a stint with the Ministry of Pacific Peoples she's now working at New Zealand Rugby as a content and communications specialist for the 2021 Rugby World Cup.
Her short time so far with rugby’s national body has confirmed her future dream of one day being able to lead and serve in places such as the International Olympic Committee, where she can keep working towards gender equality at a global level.
Originally Leger's dream was to become a diplomat. “But I think the trouble I have, I really do find a lot of love in being able to create opportunities for wāhine in sport,” Leger says.
“Not so much just on the field, but the variety of roles that exist in the sport-space. Women have so much of a chance to really take over that space and own it.”
Having witnessed the changes growing up in rugby, Leger knows how far things have come but she’s also aware that more needs to be done. “There's been an evident change and that’s a definite tribute to those who put in the work when I was little,” she says.
And now it’s Leger’s turn to plant the “seeds” for those who will come after her.
“So that future girls get to come and sit on the Counties Manukau board or get to be a part of women in sport,” Leger says. “And hopefully they are fighting for a different type of change and not the same ones we're having discussions about now.”
There are two other women on the Counties Manukau board, but Leger is the sole Māori and Pacific woman.
The experience so far has shown Leger that the importance of making decisions at a governance level needs to mirror “a true Cinderella shoe fit for our athletes and for those who move the pieces and make the magic happen for rugby," she says.
“Like our communities and the people who pass the ball around, and the people who buy the tickets and sit in the stands. They need to be at the core of a lot of the decision-making and I guess strategic planning of a board that governs sport.”
Seeing the provincial union from different vantage points over time adds to Leger’s outlook and contribution. And her upbringing means her actions are not always one of a ‘traditional’ board member, who would normally leave the day-to-day running of the organisation to staff members.
Leger is still on the ground helping with game day media and is involved in a lot of different activities outside the union. “I run around with my cap backwards with my camera, I’m up and down the stands 50 times, and stopping to say ‘Hi’ to all these people,” she says of her role at the Steelers' home games.
“I'm definitely privileged because my brother is in the team, therefore, we know a lot of the boys and their families, and a few of the women.” Leger’s younger brother is the Steelers captain and Hurricanes player Orbyn Leger.
Leger reflects where rugby roles are heading in the future: “I’m not the complete direction they need to move in but I’m a preview of what's to come.”
As one of the headline acts for the upcoming Sport New Zealand's annual Women + Girls Summit on September 29, Leger will be sharing how being brave through actions today means tomorrow's women and girls won't go through the same type of hardships.
She wants to ask summit-goers: ‘What is something everyone can do today?’
“The question is gender-fluid, so I think for the males that will be in that space, it will be a real challenge, a real wero to them around ‘What are you doing?’, ‘How are you making sure that our wāhine can move?’. ‘Are you creating space?’ and ‘Are you stepping down where possible?,” says Leger, who has also spoken at numerous events including the Festival of the Future - a three-day summit focused on social innovation.
“Then through to our wāhine who are in spaces of power, challenging them to think about that question from their angle too.”
Leger wants everyone to walk away from the summit feeling like they have a part to play in creating positive change.
She knows the path will be different for everyone, and that’s how it should be. “The change we can create together will always be bigger than the change from one person," she says. “If we all chip away at our part, then we can create a greater impact than what we would’ve if we all just sat around waiting for someone else to do it.”
It’s a common ethos for the strong women and girls advocate.
In 2019, Leger was part of The G(irls)20 Summit , where young women can influence the annual G20 forum where the world’s major economic countries come together.
Leger was chosen from thousands of people around the globe, was the only Indigenous delegate in Tokyo, and the first representative ever from New Zealand. Just 25 young women get to go each year.
She’s also on the board of Inspiring Stories - a Kiwi charity that has a vision for young New Zealanders to reach their potential to change the world.
And her commitments don’t stop there. Leger is a member of Auckland Council’s youth advisory panel, was co-chair for the Auckland Council elections working group, and in 2018 was appointed to the ministerial advisory group to review NCEA.
She won the Pacific Emerging Leadership award in 2015, and five years later, was chosen as a northern representative for Kau Tuli, the youth steering group for the Ministry for Pacific People.
Leger sees success for women’s leadership - in sport and in general - as having uncomfortable conversations.
“When we look at social change across our nation, the fact that our young people are getting up, they’ve got a voice, and they're standing in their truth, that to me is success,” she says.
“Seeing those moments in history and understanding that, for each of those steps where someone has found their voice, we’re actually being successful at encouraging even more people to find their voices, to step up and stand for change.
“The more discomfort we are having around these conversations, it means that it is getting harder. Which means we are getting to the root of the problem, and that’s where we want to be so we can find our solutions.”
The former head girl at Epsom Girls Grammar knows how powerful our youth are in the lecture rooms and on the ground. After graduating with a bachelor of communication studies from AUT, she is back there to complete a Masters of human rights.
Her research topic is looking at how the United Nations declaration of the rights of Indigenous people impacts on Māori women. The specific question sparked from a bigger one around how Leger ultimately wants to create research that contributes towards Indigenous women.
“The interest in knowing my stuff around human rights and knowing how I can play my best part in that space was really sparked by the opportunity to go to Tokyo with the Girls 20 team,” says Leger.
At the end of the day, if she was in a position of power and privilege to help move “blocks” - society's expectations of women - to where they are meant to be, she says she'd be "stoked".
In between her studies, Leger ventured offshore. “I went to find my way around the world and navigate spaces that I initially thought women weren’t allowed to be their best in,” Leger says.
“And then I learnt it’s actually this patriarchal idea which meant I wasn’t allowed to be a part of things, so I made it my life mission to make sure that I could dismantle as many of those barriers as possible for our wāhine. And I haven’t stopped since.”
If there was one piece of advice Leger wished she'd received when she was younger, it would be “age shouldn’t be a limit to creating change,” she says.
“Despite the fact that people can make a judgment on you based on your age, it still doesn’t define your ability to go out and create change and the impact that you can have on people. I would not only tell that to myself, but to my peers and everyone.”
* The Sport NZ Women + Girls Summit, delivered by Women in Sport Aotearoa and The Shift Foundation, is a one-day online event on Wednesday, September 29. You can register to attend here.
