Over the past year, Coastguard’s Chinese Boat Safety Project has hosted four Tea Talks with Chinese boaties to understand how better to serve local Chinese boaties. We’re ready to deliver on our findings.
Led by Nātia Tucker, our Community Engagement Manager, and delivered in close collaboration with Jade Tang-Taylor, co-design coach, ThinkPlace, the Tea Talks have brought boating safety conversations directly to the very boaties who know their own communities.
They were predominantly graduates of Capt Michael Wang, Coastguard Education tutor, who recruited more than 40 graduates from his alumni of hundreds who have completed his BoatMasters and Day Skipper courses in Mandarin.
According to Water Safety New Zealand’s 2025 Drowning Prevention Report, drowning risk for Asian New Zealanders has been rising for the past five years. In 2025 alone, 12 people from Asian communities lost their lives to drowning. That’s 15.4% of all national fatalities. Looking over a longer period (2016 to 2025), there were 111 drowning‑related deaths among Asian communities (13% of all fatalities nationwide). Most of these incidents were linked to fishing and food gathering. These numbers highlight a clear need for safety initiatives that are trusted, practical and culturally relevant.
Last year, we ran Phase 1 of the Chinese Boat Safety Challenge to better understand how we can support Chinese boaties across Aotearoa. Working alongside social change consultancy ThinkPlace and dozens of Mandarin‑speaking boaties, we used a co‑design approach to explore the barriers, motivations, and cultural contexts that shape safety decisions on the water.
To make sure the insights were community-led (and not assumption-led), we used:
Tea Talks (茶话会): three focus groups with 31 Chinese boaties in Auckland, facilitated in Mandarin.
Empathy interviews: conversations with key stakeholders to deepen understanding of what helps (and what gets in the way) of safer choices.
Collaborative sense‑making: combining transcripts, translations, and cultural context to ensure accuracy and nuance.
Four voices of design: bringing together Coastguard (intent), subject matter experts (expertise), boaties (lived experience), and ThinkPlace (design) to shape the findings.
This work produced rich insights and more than 50 community‑generated ideas - giving us a strong foundation to design safety initiatives that meet Chinese boaties where they are, in ways that are practical and effective.
To begin Phase 2, we held a new Tea Talk in Auckland in February during Lunar New Year, reconnecting with participants, welcoming new voices and extending the mahi into the prototyping stage of co‑design.
We’re continuing this journey through Phases 2 and 3, with a focus on building trust, improving reach, and supporting safer, more inclusive experiences for everyone who enjoys being on the water across the motu.
If you’re part of the boating community - or work with communities we’re aiming to serve better - we’d welcome your perspectives on what effective, culturally grounded engagement looks like.
For more information about Phase 1, check out Chinese Boat Safety: Co-Designing Safer Seas with Coastguard NZ – Thinkplace NZ | WāhiWhakaaro
