What is Higher Learning?

Over 20 years ago, I found myself in the small town of Gisborne on the east coast of New Zealand. At the time, as a young Pacific man navigating life in Auckland, I had literally run away from home. The details of that journey are a story for another day, but what truly matters is what came next.

It was in Gisborne that my older brother and I founded the Higher Learning Performing Arts program. We saw firsthand how performing arts could be a powerful vehicle for change—helping young people make better decisions, express themselves, and find purpose. Now, two decades later, we’re back in Western Sydney, revamping this initiative to once again make an impact on the next generation.

I’ll share more about the stages of this journey in future posts, but for now, I just wanted to put this out there.

How You Can Support Higher Learning

To keep this program running, we need to raise funds. A big part of that comes from leveraging our relationships with brands and businesses, asking them to donate to this cause. Thankfully, we’ve been fortunate to receive a lot of support.

As part of this, Matai will be contributing to the effort, topping up the prize pool to a total of $10,000 worth of prizes.

If you believe in what we’re doing and want to support the movement, head over to matai.world and grab some tickets. Every purchase helps us continue our mission of using performing arts to create real change.

Stay tuned—there’s so much more to come.

To purchase click here