Leadership Network member helping to building resilience in the Pacific
Whether she’s supporting programmes to build cyclone resilience into homes in Fiji or co-curating an art exhibition on indigenous weaving in West Papua, Katja Phutaraksa Neef is focused on putting power back into communities’ hands.
Katja currently works for Habitat for Humanity supporting projects in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Bangladesh, and Vietnam
Katja is the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) and capacity building manager for Habitat for Humanity New Zealand, supporting projects across Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. Her work is about more than just homes - it’s about dignity, empowerment, and equity.
“Habitat used to focus mainly on the built environment,” she says.
“But homes encompass so many different aspects of life, so our work can involve financial literacy, sanitation, access to clean water and climate resilience.
“Our programme supports trainings in the Pacific for communities to know how to strap roofs down ahead of cyclones, or teaching women how to fix their own plumbing.”
It’s about making sure people can identify the vulnerabilities in their own homes and know how to address them, Katja says.
Her role involves working closely with local partner organisations, providing evidence-based reporting to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and helping guide programmes through continuous learning and reflection.
Katja: "I think the most rewarding part is being able to work with the people on the ground that are implementing our programmes."
But, while the reports and data matter, it’s the time spent with communities that keeps her connected to the impact.
“I’ve travelled quite a few times to all three Pacific countries that we work with and did my masters on Rabi Island in Fiji so it meant a lot to be able to work there and go back.
“I think the most rewarding part is being able to work with the people on the ground that are implementing our programmes.”
That commitment to learning from the grassroots has been shaped by her own journey.
Born in Thailand to a Thai-German family of academics, Katja spent her early years tagging along on her parents’ development field trips, listening to rural farmers and learning about land-grabbing and displaced communities in Southeast Asia.
By the time she was 11, she’d met Moken elders whose ocean-connected lives had been uprooted by tsunami recovery and tourism development.
She was angry but also inspired.
That formative exposure laid the foundation for her academic and advocacy path.
Her master’s research in Development Studies at Victoria University of Wellington focused on Banaban youth on Rabi Island in Fiji, descendants of a community displaced by phosphate mining in the 20th century where 90 percent of their island was mined.
That work grew out of a partnership with the International Centre for Advocates Against Discrimination (ICAAD), where Katja began as an “artivist-in-residence” and continues today as an advisor.
Katja: "Too often, systems aren’t made with young people in mind.”
With ICAAD, she co-led an exhibition with the Banaban Human Rights Defenders (B
HRD), bringing Banaban youth to New Zealand to perform traditional dance, guide visitors through the exhibit, and speak directly about their history.
One moment stayed with her: a young man named Tatu stood before an Auckland audience and said, “This is my Turangawaewae, because my land was spread over yours”.
The phosphate from Banaba or Ocean Island had fertilised New Zealand’s farmland. “It was powerful and confronting,” Katja says.
More recently, she’s been working on an exhibition about West Papua - another region facing displacement, deforestation, and restricted freedom of expression.
She travelled to the region in December and co-produced a short documentary, which has just finished screening at the University of Auckland, alongside a creative display of traditional string bags known as noken, a symbol of Papuan identity and resistance.
Traditional string bags known as noken (pictured) are a symbol of Papuan identity and resistance
Katja balances this work with her role on Auckland Council’s Youth Advisory Panel, where she’s helped review city disaster plans and push for more meaningful youth engagement.
“Too often, systems aren’t made with young people in mind,” she says. “It’s not enough to be consulted - we need to be involved in planning from the start.”
Her grounding in grassroots activism is strong, but Katja is also learning how to navigate more formal diplomatic spaces, thanks in part to the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s Leadership Network.
Last year she traveled to Indonesia with the foundation’s Track II diplomacy programme that supports informal diplomacy with think-tanks in Asia on topical issues and challenges facing the region such as climate change.
The trip expanded her understanding of advocacy at a geopolitical level.
“I’d never even heard of ‘track two diplomacy’ before,” Katja says. “Coming from a very community-focused background, it was so valuable to be brought into conversations on regional security, foreign policy, and climate migration, but to still feel like I was carrying my communities with me into those spaces.”
The Asia New Zealand Foundation Leadership Network equips the next generation of Kiwi leaders to thrive in Asia. We provide members with the connections, knowledge and confidence to lead New Zealand’s future relationship with the region.