Kiwibank Wears Its PRIDE On Its Heart

Kiwibank through its in-house Pride Network has created its very own PRIDE symbol ‘Te Kahukura Kāpuia’ – The Multicoloured Collective is a symbol of its commitment to the Rainbow whānau and its culture of inclusivity.

Kiwibank undertook this important mahi to demonstrate how it wants to show up for its customers and its people. The collaborative design process between the Pride Network and the Brand and Marketing teams helped create a visual symbol of Kiwibank’s modern, progressive inclusive attitude to banking.

The translation of Kahukura references ‘multicoloured’ and Kāpuia references ‘to gather or unite as one’. Te Kahukura Kāpuia uses the harakeke symbol to weave together the eleven colours of the Progress Flag, utilising the Kiwibank green to symbolise the strength of connection, inclusiveness and Kiwibank’s pride in its people.

Chief People Officer, Charlotte Ward says this symbol is an important way of helping foster a place for people to belong.

“Belonging is a huge part of what our people need to be able to deliver unbeatable performance that puts our customers and partners at the heart of everything we do.

“The idea of weaving the harakeke together makes it stronger than individual strands. We see that in the way our rainbow community is so closely weaved into our mahi, its inseparable, they are not a side group, they integral to who we are as an organisation.

“At Kiwibank everyone wears a Te Kahukura Kāpuia badge with pride, supporting all the communities represented on the Pride progress flag. New starters are gifted a badge with their induction pack, on day one of joining the Kiwibank whānau.”

Senior Manager, Leadership, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Jess Segal says it was an incredibly important part of her mahi and something she is incredibly proud of.

“At Kiwibank we want to show that everyone is included and has a place to belong here - Ka tīmata i a tatou. We wanted a symbol of pride that sat alongside our Kiwibank logo and would be seen year-round, not just in PRIDE month.

“While we previously had a rainbow logo and badge, it wasn’t something everyone in Kiwibank felt connected to, nor owned. The path we took to creating Te Kahukura Kāpuia looked back at everything we had achieved with our Rainbow community and built on that. We realised our rainbow community, both internally and externally, had evolved, and the progress flag is a good representation of that and meant a lot to our people. It’s inclusive of all parts of the community.

“The symbol is also a way for us to represent the different parts of ourselves and the strength in them existing together. Intersectionality is, quite rightly, being talked about more and more. It shows we aren’t just a single thing, we are all made up of multiple layers. Each individual at Kiwibank could belong to multiple underrepresented or minority groups. We wanted to a show who we are, what we stand for and who we stand beside, for those that work at Kiwibank and those that bank with Kiwibank.”

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