When Jean Milne walked across the graduation stage in 2024, the 48-year-old marked the end of one journey, and the beginning of another.
Not only as a qualified social worker, but as a wahine Māori.
“It was a huge moment,” she says.
Jean is Ngāi Tūhoe but had no connection with her culture while growing up.
She says the first year of her social work degree in 2020 was her first step towards making that connection.
“When I started studying, I was like, who am I? What am I about? Where is my position in the world?
"And so that’s when I started my ko wai au [(who am I)] journey.”
The journey
Jean’s path to social work is quite a unique one. She worked in retail and hospitality into her 40s, then suddenly decided to make a change.
“I knew retail wasn’t for me, but I didn’t know what to do.”
She was at Te Rā o Te Raukura one year and walked past a stall promoting caregivers for Kōkiri marae. Jean discussed the opportunity with her husband, and they decided to give it a go.
“Then I brought home a teenager, and I think my husband was expecting a baby.”
But for Jean, it was always about the rangatahi.
“I know that when I was a teenager, I wish I had someone like me or my team there to support me.”
Jean supported six young people over the course of two years – all while raising her own teenager.
"But I felt like I could do more than just having one-on-one in my home,” she says.
Becoming a social worker
Someone suggested she consider social work; a daunting prospect for Jean who had not studied since she was 18 years old.
She enrolled in a bi-cultural certificate to test the academic waters, passed that, and launched straight into her social work degree in 2020.
Covid-19 put an end to classroom learning and in her second year she took in a pēpi, who still lives with her today.
“So, I had a newborn, we were still partly in lockdown, and I was studying full-time,” Jean says.
Receiving a moko kauae - a sacred and traditional tattoo
The second year of her degree was significant for another reason; she started to think about getting her moko kauae. A traditional Māori tattoo for women, applied to the lips and chin.
“From what I’d heard, it was passed down the line.
“But, just through my journey and my studying [I discovered] it is who you are. It’s your right as Māori to receive one."
She made herself a deal, that if she graduated, she'd get one.
“To represent who I am and my journey,” she says.
Graduating
In 2023, Jean did a placement with Oranga Tamariki and decided that is where she wanted to work. She became a youth worker while finishing her studies and then got her “dream job” as a youth justice social worker.
“This space felt right, it felt like home to be honest. It was where I needed to be,” she says, of Oranga Tamariki.
So, it was fitting that when she finished her degree, she got her moko kauae at the Lower Hutt site, in a community space designed by the local iwi.
“It was surreal,” Jean says, getting emotional.
“It was probably one of the most significant moments in my life.”
2 weeks later, Jean walked across the graduation stage wearing her identity proudly.
“I am Māori, and I stand in that now.”
Dream job
Jean will join her colleagues in celebrating National Social Workers Day – her second since entering the profession.
It’s a job she never imagined for herself but one she believes she landed in at exactly the right time in her life.
And she urges anyone considering a similar path to take it.
“We need more social workers. We need more caring people out there that can step up and do this job. It’s not easy, but it is rewarding.
“And it is never too late.”
Jean works in the youth justice team because, for her, it’s still about the teenagers.
She says the highlight of the job is seeing the young people succeed.
“Just watching the look on their faces when they achieve simple things.”
Simple things that Jean can witness in her dream job, following her own achievements.