“Buckle your seat belt you’re in for a wild ride.” Those are the words of wisdom civil construction industry trailblazer Katareina Whaiora Kaiwai says she would pass on if she met her younger self at the start of her career in the industry.

The managing director and founder of Tairāwhiti Contractors in Ruatōria is still buzzing after being awarded a King’s Service Medal in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours for her services to women and civil construction.

Kat’s career started with an administration role in the Wellington office more than 12 years ago for Fulton Hogan. After swapping some of her skills with colleagues who weren’t so comfortable with completing paperwork, but could teach her how to handle machinery, she jumped at the chance to get experience in road maintenance, water utilities, excavating and emergency response work.

She says that’s where she found her passion for the industry and opened her eyes to what she could achieve.

“I was exposed to a lot of different avenues of work back then. I could see the potential and loved what I was doing. It’s a great industry to be in and the opportunities are endless.”

After soaking up a range of infrastructure skills and studying an NZ Apprenticeship in Infrastructure Works (Civil) with Connexis, family brought Kat to Tairāwhiti (Gisborne) where she decided to start Tairāwhiti Contractors. It’s a company that prides itself on being part of the community and Kat says she goes out of her way to employ local people with local knowledge they can bring to road maintenance.

She says many larger contracting companies have been impressed with the approach, especially those that don’t necessarily have the local relationships to understand exactly what is happening on the East Coast – an area with hundreds of kilometres of highway and local roads.

“It’s been good for the Tier Ones because they can tap into local subcontractors and ask them to do asset management, take photos, confirm locations and find out where they can store materials and plant machinery.

“They’re seeing the value in what people on the ground who live there and work there can bring, in particular when it comes to response times. It’s not something they knew how to do before.”

Tairāwhiti Contractors employs a road maintenance team of 38 – more than half of whom are women. Kat is proud to be breaking down barriers in the industry to make it easier for other talented woman to make their mark.

“That’s the cool thing – being able to make change for other people through my experiences.”

Tairāwhiti Contractors recently hosted Girls with Hi-Vis in conjunction with Connexis, which was featured on Seven Sharp, to show young women the roles available in the industry and help them see the career paths, with many of the 55 attendees taking up traineeships in civil construction companies.

She says she is proud to see so many more women in the industry these days because it normalises careers in civil construction for other women, she says “girls can’t be what girls can’t see”, so seeing more female leaders and more women on work sites can only be positive for gender diversity in the industry.

On the East Coast there is a strong presence of females working on ground level as well as management and corporate level, but there’s also the potential for more representation, she says.

“At the moment I’m the only female director of a civil construction company in the area and I’d like to see a lot more females starting their own businesses in this industry.”

“Businesses now really see the value of what women can bring to civil construction roles.”

The official presentation of her King’s Service Medal is coming up next month, where she will be presented with the medal by the Governor-General of New Zealand The Rt Hon Dame Cindy Kiro, and Kat says she is still coming to terms with the magnitude of what the award means.

“It’s really humbling but the true reward for me is being able to navigate things that have been barriers for others and show them the way.”