6. David Rei Miller

Māori in Engineering

David Rei Miller is an Environmental Engineer who began his studies at the University of Auckland but finished with a BE (Hons) and ME (Hons) from Massey University. He has spent the last 16 years in local government and currently looks after the water supplies for Palmerston North City Council. David is passionate about sustainability and resilience, and has experienced what the journey is like to reclaim your māoritanga.

This kōrero covers David’s background, research and work within the industry. We delve into a lot this episode! Things like:

• recommending a quarter life crisis!
• what it means to learn your own whakapapa.
• finding your ikigai.

He shares insights from research he completed for Engineers Without Borders about the low numbers of Māori and Pasifika in engineering, the reasons and what we can do to address the imbalance. You can find the paper we discuss on the Engineers Without Borders NZ website under the NEWS tab. Enjoy e te iwi!