As prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern is one of the most powerful people in the world. As prime minister of New Zealand, knee deep in the aftermath of Friday’s horrific terrorist attack, all eyes, and ears, are on her. Since the devastating, brutal, barbaric attack on Christchurch, she has stood at the centre, not only of a media influx, but of a community. Facing the most devastating attack of its modern history, Ardern commands a country that has been left shell-shocked and heart broken. She liaises with, leads, and sets the tone for a world in mourning. She cries, and hugs, and grieves; she is, above all else, unapologetically human. She is everything that leadership should be, and more. She is everything that leadership too often forgets.

Jacinda Ardern makes me proud to be female, but more than that, in the face of such human atrocity, where hatred, terror, and disgust are the intended shrapnel, she makes me proud to be human. She fights fear-mongering hatred with love and kindness. She shows that alongside, despite, and in direct response to the most devastating act of brutality, lies community, acceptance, and humanity in the purest form. Not only does she show it, she encourages it, demands it from her country without dictating. She leads by example, by empathy, by realism, and by unity. She is the people of Christchurch – she is not above them. She is not merely a figurehead, she is with them, beside them. 

I will not claim to know the ins and outs of New Zealand’s political climate, in fact, I know next to nothing, and that is kind of my point. Right now, politics and political discourse are redundant – this platform is not being used to further political agenda, or enter political debates. They cannot save us, they cannot comfort, and, unlike those suffering, politics can wait. Similarly, it would be wrong, and I think Ardern would agree, to focus solely on her. For she may be at the heart of New Zealand, the voice the rest of the world hears, but she is not one voice. She is speaking on behalf of a nation, a nation that also speaks for itself: the kindness, companionship, and forgiveness that have been seen reaches beyond language, governance, and religion. She knows, acknowledges, and encourages this on a fundamental human level, devoid of politics, regardless of gender. That is true leadership, and the fact that it is so very evident on a national scale is testimony to just that. “They are us,” and Ardern is her country. 

And, as a sure reminder of her effectiveness, the reality of her position, within just 48hrs, Ardern vowed to tighten gun laws – determined to do everything in her power to reinstate New Zealand as a country of safety. Level-headed, efficient, proactive, and determined, Ardern combines potential with emotion, appreciating the fact that power and laws mean nothing without empathy. She has spoken with dignity, respect, and resolve – handling media and acts of governance with unquestionable necessity. However, it is in the less requisite professional demands that Ardern truly speaks. The compassion, sadness, and genuine humanity seen in her eyes; the hugs she gives to those whose pain she genuinely shares – this is what makes her a truly exceptional leader. 

I am reluctant to refer to Ardern as a mother, or even as a woman, for although she is both, it is her humanity that speaks first and foremost. Ardern is not the leader she is because she is female. Similarly, she is not the leader she is despite being female. To suggest either, or any variation, is to undermine, and diminish her successful leadership – it is to reinstate feminist narratives into the human values that run deeper than any, and every, label. Ardern’s leadership is people-centred, rather than profit-centred; her main focus is on the victims, rather than the perpetrator. She knows that her place, her need, is not in ensuring significant punishment, but in consoling, co-being, with those who have been tragically, undeservedly, beyond imaginably, punished.  Perhaps she trusts her systems enough to know that justice will be brought in time, and perhaps she knows, as only instinct and raw humanity knows, that both love, and human suffering, know nothing of time, or system. She’s leading a country through the most horrific of realities, and yet maintaining resolve, not because she has learned to public speak, nor because of the title she finds herself owning, but because she is, still, only human. 

Ardern is fiercely protective, knows the power of words, and is actively demonstrating that compassion and humanity trumps all (read into that exactly what you will). She is a figure to be reckoned with, and she’s showing that strength comes in all shapes and sizes, beyond and above laws, regulations, labels, and difference. Her greatest strength is, without doubt, in that she is still human, and she’s using it to guide, console, and lead a nation. And yes, that may be her job, but nonetheless, Ardern is a shining example of exactly what terrorism fears most.