Fraser Smith has spent over ten years building the Enable Rangatiratanga Trust from concept to reality. Fraser has been a primary school teacher in the Far North for 20 years and a school principal for 22 years. For most of that time, he was Principal of Oturu School, which was designated as Decile 1a. This meant that almost all of Fraser’s students came from communities with the lowest possible socio-economic resources. Some of these students needed the kind of intervention that only live-in boarding school could provide, and Fraser’s drive to provide for that opportunity led to the founding of the Enable Rangatiratanga Trust.
Under Fraser’s leadership, enrolments at Oturu School surged and it became an innovative, popular and successful school. Fraser is now retired but still teaches and works in local primary schools on a part-time basis. He is also a published author of two children’s books, with more on the way.