You can see him on his Facebook Page, Farm4Life – a Southland share milker social media sensation, leading the good life with his whānau, talking about his passion – dairy farming.
You can go onto his Farm4Life Hub and get into informal education – everything from learning about all the challenges of calving to getting a loan from a bank manager.
And there’s a closed Facebook page for members, where you can ask questions and chat.
You can read his book, Farm4Life – Mahi Mana and Life on the Land, and get his whole life story.
Tangaroa Walker (Ranginui/Pukenga) and his trailblazing business has just won the 2021 Te Kupeka Umaka Māori ki Araiteuru (KUMA) Māori Business Award.
The KUMA Māori Business Awards honour resilience, collaboration and business success for Māori businesses in Otago, Southland and the Queenstown Lakes District.
KUMA board member and judge Karen Roos (Te Puni Kōkiri) says Tangaroa’s personality and joy in being in front of the camera was an obvious entertainment factor, but particularly that “his life story, his dedication to being on the land, and his manaaki towards others” were significant factors in being honoured… Tangaroa is a strong role model in the community and especially for our rangatahi.”
Born into a world which he has likened to Once Were Warriors, he was whangaied for the second time when he was six. This time Tangaroa had people who had his back – both his Auntie and Uncle and a mentor, the farmer who took him on as a 13-year-old worker. With that support, he finished Tauranga Boys High – a provincial rugby player, and already committed to dairy farming.
In 2012 Tangaroa became the inaugural winner of the Young Māori Farmer Award in the Ahuwhenua Trophy – BNZ Māori Excellence in Farming Award and the Southland Primary ITO trainee of the year award.
At that time he said, “I want to be the most successful Māori in the world and I want to motivate young Māori by directing them down the path I have followed to show them that the opportunities are out there if you are willing to sacrifice and put in the hard yards.”
As planned, he was earning six figures by the time he was 22.
He began a motivational speaking circuit, at schools, universities and conferences. He could see that it wasn’t enough:
“Although it was an awesome opportunity to be able to speak about myself – it has never been about myself. For me it is about giving others a hand-up and hopefully inspiring and entertaining them.
“I believe that everyone is on a road. Some are on a one-way street, but there are roundabouts – places where you can take a different turn. You get options at intersections, and some people never get shown the options in life. If you don’t see the options you can’t make the change.
“I was telling everyone about dairy farming, and maybe they got into the industry, but they weren’t experiencing what I was experiencing: They needed to be trained and find really good mentors. They needed support. So for six years I had my head down farming, but I was always mentally thinking about doing a better job of inspiring rangatahi. And not just young kids but others wanting to transition into the dairy industry.
“So I crafted an online video platform to inspire people into dairying. I wanted it to be edutainment. I’d like that word to be in the Oxford dictionary!
“The platform provides a database of short training videos each one from 1 – to 5 minutes long with pop-up answers to quizzes. Some of the videos are industry experts – scientists, agronomist, economists, vets, contractors – all the best people in the industry.
“People can develop their own profile or cv by capturing the knowledge that they already have. And that makes it easier for bosses too. They can find the staff they need.
“The Hub has a content library with dozens of modules, such as calf rearing, feeding, cow shed repair or machinery. There is also a growing mātauranga Māori section – looking after our people and looking after our land.
“Currently there are about 1000 videos on the platform. Since we started just over a year ago there have been 64 million video views. 1.2 million a month. It’s definitely working!
“It costs $295 per year to subscribe to the Hub, and you get a fleece jacket worth $150 with Farm4 Life on it. We’ve got people as young as 12 years old. There are members from right around the world – but 70 percent are from New Zealand.
“There’s a free Hub Start – with 50 videos. It’s an introduction. So if you are in gaol, for example, you can sign up to that and start your video learning.
“There is also Hub Scholarship – anyone around the world can buy a scholarship for $150 dollars and select a student or nominate say a school. That gives them a year-long membership to the Hub and access to online mentoring. People often think of mentoring as one-to-one – and it is (and I tell rangatahi you can ask someone to be your mentor, they can always say no). But with the Hub you can have a mentor in your pocket.”
One person Tangaroa mentored is Quinn Morgan (Ngāti Tūwharetoa/Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi) who was recently named the Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer of the Year. He’s acknowledged Tangaroa’s help:
“I was living in Australia and working in the fitness industry. I knew about Farm4Life through social media – but I didn’t think I would ever be a farmer. Then when we came back to New Zealand and I was looking for a job where I could see more of my family, I contacted Tangaroa and he gave me time, which I was appreciative of, and he said he had this Hub coming up. So I bought my membership as soon as it came out.
“I’m studying with the Primary Industry ITO at the same time. With the Hub you can see what you are learning put into action, so it ties in really well. You can only do the ITO training when you have a job and if your employer recommends you – so the Hub is filling a different space.
“The Hub is always in my pocket. I only see my tutor twice quarterly, so the Hub fills in that gap. If I’ve got a new job to do, I pull it up, type in what I’m doing and there’s a video showing you how to do it.
“I like to buy scholarships every now and then and nominate a school. The Hub can be used by kids before they get a fulltime job. It helps them build an online resume, making it easier for them to get a good job.”
Tangaroa hasn’t finished yet. His next goal is, within a year, to buy a dairy farm and ramp up the video production. It will be a training farm with everything recorded on video.