Supriya Vani - Jacinda Ardern: Leading With Empathy

Acknowledgements

First and foremost we would like to thank Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand, for taking the time to talk with Supriya Vani about her life and motivation. We would also like to thank officials in the Prime Ministers Office for their correspondence with Supriya over the last three years, which gave invaluable additional insights into the New Zealand prime ministers values and her unique approach to politics. The seed of this book was sown in 2017 when Supriya met Joanna Kempkers, New Zealands high commissioner to India.

Writing a book is a challenge at the best of times. Needless to say, 2020 has been far from the best of times. We had planned on conducting numerous viva voce interviews in New Zealand, but of course COVID-19 put paid to this. Happily, messaging and Voice over IP (VoIP) and email, along with digital and print sources saved the day.

We would like to thank Kiwi journalists and their publications, TV and radio stations, and websites: the New Zealand Herald , the New Zealand Listener , Newshub , Newsroom , Next , Noted , Now to Love , Otago Connection , the Otago Daily Times, the Otago Post, Radio New Zealand (RNZ), the Rotorua Daily Post , Scoop , Stuff , the Taranaki Daily News , Television New Zealand (TVNZ), Spinoff , the Standard, and the Waikato Times.

We would also like to acknowledge the following international sources: The Age , the BBC, The Conversation , Diplomacy and Beyond , Euronews , the Evening Standard (London), The Interpreter , The Guardian, Marie Claire , Movehub, the New Yorker and Time .

We are grateful to the authors of the following books: Madeleine Chapman, Jacinda Ardern : A New Kind of Leader ; Michelle Duff, Jacinda Ardern: The Story Behind an Extraordinary Leader ; Claudia Pond Eyley and Dan Salmon, Helen Clark: Inside Stories ; Nicky Hager, Dirty Politics: How Attack Politics is Poisoning New Zealands Political Environment ; and John Harvey and Brent Edwards, Annette King: The Authorised Biography.

Of the many people we have been in touch with about this book and who have shared their experiences and knowledge, we are particularly grateful to Gregor Fountain, John Inger, Dame Annette King, Professor Stephen Levine, Paul Lowe and Colin Mathura-Jeffree.

For sourcing research material, M. Marie Issacks assistance has been invaluable, and we thank him wholeheartedly. We also thank Amanda Bentley for her help with genealogical research and her expertise in First World War history and documents, which gave us insights into Jacinda Arderns family history.

We are grateful to our agent, Kathrin Scheel of This Book Travels, for helping us to get our book out in the world, where we have been fortunate to work with Bill Swainson at Oneworld, who has shepherded the book throughout. Authors have their blind spots: Bills editorial clarity and our copy editor Jonathan Wadmans meticulous attention to detail along with their absolute commitment to the book during the trying UK lockdown have helped focus our narrative and refine the text. We are also grateful to Emily Hart at Hardie Grant for taking on the book in Australia and New Zealand, and for her comments on the final draft, and to Prema Govindan at HarperCollins India for taking on the book for the Indian subcontinent.

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Personal acknowledgements:

Supriya Vani: Thanks to my parents Madhur Bhashini and Tarsem Lal, my brother Jai and sister Ishanu for being my support system. Thanks also to Sharon L. Shields, Katherine T. Osten, Obse Ababiya, Christian Marc and Mohinder Singh Miglani.

Carl A. Harte: Thanks to my partner Rajeshni Reddy for her support, and to my sons Zachary Harte and Hamish Harte for their interest in and comments on the text.

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Finally, we acknowledge New Zealand, this exquisite land so far from the rest of the world, rich with scenery and characters that we hope come alive in our narrative. Without Kiwis down-to-earth friendliness this book would not have been written. Aotearoa has shown the way to the rest of the world in the past, as it does now.

Supriya Vani, New York,

Carl A. Harte, Pondicherry,

1 March 2021

A Note About the Authors

SUPRIYA VANI is a peace activist and author. As a human rights advocate, she actively participates at international peace organisations and forums, including the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, the Nobel Womens initiative, and Laureates and Leaders, World Academy of Arts and Science, and United Nations. As a journalist she has interviewed a number of women political figures, including prime minister of Iceland Katrn Jakobsdttir, former president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former prime minister of Australia Julia Gillard and Jacinda Ardern about female leadership. She is a recipient of an honorary James Patterson Fellowship from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Her first book, Battling Injustice: 16 Women Nobel Peace Laureates , based on her interviews with all the women Nobel Peace Laureates, won praise from a number of prominent international figures including Nobel Peace Laureates Malala Yousafzai, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Former Secretary General of United Nations Ban Ki-Moon.

CARL A. HARTE is an Australian writer and book editor. The recipient of an eLit Gold Award for his book, Building Your Own Home: Tips , Techniques and Thoughts for the Owner Builder , he has also worked with a wide range of authors including the late former President of India, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Om Swami, Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi, Arun Tiwari, Farahnaz Ispahani, Swami Agnivesh, Kishalay Bhattacharjee and Maxwell Pereira.

Bibliography

Madeleine Chapman, Jacinda Ardern: A New Kind of Leader (Cheltenham: History Press, 2020).

Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Ament Imes, The Imposter Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention, Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice , 15(3), 1978, 2417.

Michelle Duff, Jacinda Ardern: The Story Behind an Extraordinary Leader (Auckland: Allen & Unwin, 2019).

Claudia Pond Eyley and Dan Salmon, Helen Clark: Inside Stories (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2015).

Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons (London: Transworld Digital, 2020).

Nicky Hager, Dirty Politics: How Attack Politics is Poisoning New Zealands Political Environment (Nelson, NZ: Craig Potton, 2014).

John Harvey and Brent Edwards, Annette King: The Authorised Biography (Auckland: Upstart Press, 2019).

Wayne McClintock, Resource Community Formation & Change: A Case Study of Murupara, Working Paper 7, Taylor Baines & Associates, June 1998, ISSN 1176-3515.

Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine , 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966).

Ann Pomeroy, Resilient Communities Murupara, Centre for Sustainability: Agriculture, Food, Energy and Environment University of Otago, Dunedin, June 2016.

Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack on Christchurch masjidain on 15 March 2019, Report, 26 November 2020.

Volcanos and Seismic Shifts

Murupara is a small settlement in the North Island of New Zealand, in a remote part of the Bay of Plenty region. Its a place that feels as if it is drifting, somehow behind in time. Nestled at the edge of the Urewera ranges, near the confluence of the Rangitaiki and Whirinaki rivers, Murupara rests on fault lines: geological, social, cultural, economic. The town divides the pines of the Kaingaroa Forest, planted in the 1920s, and Te Ureweras unspoiled rainforest straddling the tame country and the wild, peace and upheaval, Mori and pkeh (European), past and future. The place is a scenic backwater with plentiful trout and deer nearby but fewer prospects otherwise, well past its glory days of the mid-twentieth century.