Jessica Apanui from Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora

Jessica works as Principal Advisor, Lived Experience Addictions Mentally Well National Commissioning team at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora. She has worked in the lived experience and gambling addiction sector since 2021, including as Northern Regional Lived Experience Lead for Oranga Hinengaro at Te Aka Whai Ora (the Māori Health Authority). She has her own lived experience of alcohol and drug addiction and homelessness.

"I started my career around some really strong Māori leaders that believed in me and saw the huge value of lived experience. And they took me on the journey with them."

Jessica is deliberate about what she is trying to change. She took her current role specifically to influence how the addiction sector approaches tāngata whai ora and whānau.

"I wanted to be able to influence the addiction sector, mainly decision makers, to change the way addiction is dealt with here in Aotearoa with a lived experience lens."

She sees her role as a conduit, not a platform.

"It's not my opinion or my voice that I'm delivering in the space that I mahi in. It's all of those that are with me including whānau, tāngata whai ora, those that I have hui with, that I meet for wānanga, that I stop and have coffee with. It's never about me; I'm just the vehicle that delivers the message."

Jessica describes her approach as servant leadership, focused on empowering kaimahi rather than directing them. She prioritises trust, collaboration, and the growth and wellbeing of her team.

Her values are rooted in both recovery principles and te ao Māori, shaped by her lived experience and time at places like Te Rau Ora, Whare Tukutuku, Oraka Ararau and Mahi a Atua.

"Always be yourself, because it's easy to change in this environment and it's very political. Authenticity is huge."

Honesty, transparency, tika, pono, aroha, wairuatanga, and manaakitanga all guide her. Being tika means not softening hard truths.

"I'm really firm on that, about being straight up and really speaking to the rawness and the realness of the reality."

Jessica is clear that her lived experience of addiction is not just context. It is a professional skill set.

"I know how to hustle. I know how to make a dollar. Those skills were never lost. They were just transferred over into a space that I work in now. Before I used those skills to sell methamphetamine; now I use those skills to help people recover from that and influence. I've just made those skills transferable and changed the products."

She draws on active listening and the confidence to ask hard questions in rooms where she may be the only person with lived experience. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she drew on her experience of homelessness to develop a $2.5 million housing proposal that was approved and is now reducing emergency department admissions. She also worked with Te Aka Whai Ora to strengthen inpatient units across the country.

"It took time, and relationship skills, but that is now being rolled out around the country at a national level by those who continued to stay through the transition of Te Aka Whai Ora into Hauora Māori Services."

Influencing clinicians and senior leaders requires preparation. She goes into every hui knowing who will be in the room and having her key messages ready, and regularly draws on the example of lived experience and clinical expertise working alongside each other.

She is candid that navigating government and the health system took time, and that there is no shortcut for people coming from the community.

"It's just something that we don't get taught out there. There is no course or programme for it. It takes strong advocacy, and a lot of courage, and a lot of learning."

Jessica's Māori identity is central to how she works, not something left at the door.

"I am Māori all day, every day. So, it doesn't matter where I'm working in mainstream. That comes with me in all spaces."

She regularly asks the questions that keep Māori voices at the table. "Where is Te Tiriti o Waitangi in this? Where is hauora Māori services? How are we involving Māori?"

Jessica holds a Level 4 Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Mental Health and Addiction) from Unitec, and in 2025 completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Science from AUT. Supervision has been central to her growth in her current role, alongside self-reflection and a commitment to continuous learning.

"I've had to work extremely hard on me."

She encourages emerging leaders to invest in the relationship with their manager, and to seek out mentors who will stretch them.

"Build your relationship with your boss. I have a very solid, authentic relationship with mine, and that took time to build.”

She acknowledges the Māori leaders who have shaped and supported her, including Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen, Riana Manuel, Aroha Keremeta Metcalf, Lucinda Cassin, Dean Rangihuna, Egan Bidois, and Tracey Potiki. "There are a lot of people I'm grateful for."

"Be bold and be deliberate."

Jessica encourages aspiring leaders to focus on areas that genuinely reflect their own lived experience, and to be confident to “stay in your lane” when something falls outside that.

She is also motivated by the growing voice of lived experience leaders in Aotearoa, and the transformative changes people with lived experiences are making at every level of health.

"I love that part about my job, that I'm able to influence, inspire, encourage, advocate, and uplift the voice of lived experience and tāngata whai ora and whānau voice right across the national space."