Wayfinding with Te Kura o Pātiki
Imagine every child moving through their early years knowing they come from people who crossed the largest ocean in the world – without maps or equipment, reading the ocean like a language. In early April, this understanding sailed into a classroom in West Auckland. Eighty rangatahi from the Samoan and Niuean bilingual units at Te […]
Fa’atauanau: Rangatahi Wellbeing in School Sport
The Avondale College First XV is a school sport environment like many others – where young people carry real pressure and where that pressure often goes unnamed. Selection anxiety, family expectations, the weight of not wanting to let people down. Present, but rarely expressed. What shapes wellbeing for rangatahi in school sport – and what […]
Oranga Waha
In West Auckland, an initiative is asking the question: what if every rangatahi Māori and Pacific grew up knowing their waha — their voice, their smile, their hauora — was uniquely theirs? Knowing how to look after it, where to find support, and feeling confident enough to walk through that door. “Your waha is more […]
Mana Motuhake o te Kai Framework
Healthy Families Waitākere has engaged with several organisations and whānau on the issue of food security and discussed how to grow kai sovereignty in West Auckland. Kai sovereignty emphasises placing control of food back into local communities. If you would like to know more about this mahi, please email hfw@sportwaitakere.nz Mana Motuhake o te Kai […]
Mālō ‘e tau lava Tim Makaafi
We’re delighted to welcome Tim Makaafi (Ha’apai, Faleloa and Kolomotu’a) to Healthy Families Waitākere team at Tuia Waitākere, joining us in a newly created role as Pasifika Outcomes Lead. Tim champions Pasifika knowledge and culture as a pathway to good health — working with communities to unlock the power of sport, arts, movement and culture […]
The Village Pathway
Strengthening collective identity across generations is quietly future-focused work. It is about ensuring younger people grow up seeing their history honoured openly, while elders see their knowledge carried forward. It is about cultural continuity that feels alive and practised and it is one of the most powerful ways communities build the environments where health and […]
A name that fits: Tuia Waitākere
A message from our lead provider, Tuia Waitakere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIzx164Tbkw After more than 30 years of supporting West Aucklanders to live active and healthy lives, Sport Waitākere today proudly unveils its new name – Tuia Waitākere. The name reflects both the organisation’s strong legacy and its vision for a future where everyone in Waitākere is living […]
Healing Through What Our Tūpuna Knew
We see a future where the knowledge that steadied our tūpuna is alive in classrooms, homes, and carried forward in practice, not just memory. Where descendants of Hinepūtehue reach for taonga puoro as the inherent response to emotional overwhelm. Where Atua Wāhine are remembered, embodied and present. A glimpse of that future is already visible inside the He Wero o ngā Wāhine (teen parent unit) at Henderson High School. Over two days, a […]
Growing Together at Lincoln Heights
In the māra at Lincoln Heights, tamariki learning grows much like seedlings – quietly at first, then with earnest reach and depth. The Kahui Māra Kai kaupapa is shaping a way of learning that begins in the soil, hands working the earth, eyes watching seasons shift, tamariki tending living things that respond to care, patience, […]
Transformed: Living Well to Serve Well
What if health was seen not as self-focus, but as an act of service? That question sits at the heart of Transformed, a faith-led wellbeing initiative redefining what it means to live well. The idea for Transformed emerged out of As One, a major Pentecost gathering that brought together West Auckland churches, most serving Pasifika […]