Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Statement

Tumeke Innovation Ltd
Last updated: 27 May 2025

Tumeke Innovation Ltd was founded not despite structural barriers, but because of them. This project exists as a direct response to professional exclusion, cultural erasure, and systemic inequity in employment, technology, and creative industries both in Aotearoa and abroad.

Our values are not symbolic. They are operational. We are building this company from the ground up to reflect a different way of working: one where manaakitanga, mana motuhake, and tikanga inform every policy, system, and structure.

We are not here to mirror the inequities of the institutions that gatekept our founder, our ideas, or our communities. We are here to replace them.

Who We Hire and How We Work

Tumeke Innovation Ltd is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, nationality, family status, political belief, or past involvement with carceral systems. In fact, we actively seek to include those often shut out of creative, technical, and leadership opportunities.

We do not run automated filters. We do not require elite networks. We assess people on their contributions, their potential, and their alignment with kaupapa, not on paper pedigree or who’s BBQ you’ve attended.

We recognize that ability does not always come wrapped in confidence, and that confidence is often socially manufactured. We do not punish quiet talent or reward performative assertiveness.

Cultural and Systemic Awareness

We know how power works. We understand that marginalised people are often told to “fit better,” to “learn to navigate the system,” or to accept less in order to be “let in”. This is subjugation language and it has absolutely nothing to do with operating successfully in a professional environment. We can’t stress that enough. Environments that behave this way are part and parcel to discrimination that non-dominant ethnicities experience every day.

We reject that framing.

Tumeke is not a workplace where cultural identity must be softened to be accepted. You will not be asked to decolonize your voice, dress yourself in institutional polish, or check your whakapapa or personality at the door.

We know that exclusion does not always look like slurs or legal discrimination. It looks like silence. Like unreturned calls. Like stalled applications. Like being told you’re not a “cultural fit.” Like watching less qualified peers promoted in your place.

We will not replicate these failures.

Accountability and Recourse

If you experience discrimination, harassment, or retaliation within this company, you will be heard. You will not be managed into silence. We offer formal whistleblower protections codified into our founding documents, and we respond to complaints with confidentiality, process integrity, and consequence.

If we fail in our commitments, we will not hide it. We will fix it. If we do not see our failings, show them to us. We will not turn a blind eye or hide behind institutional rhetoric.

Our Commitment

We are building toward something better, not by hoping the system changes, but by building one that doesn’t need permission.

If you’re tired of being overlooked, written off, or passed by: we see you. We built this for you too.