Healthy Families East Cape

This week our Rautaki Māori, Jade Kameta, sat down for a kōrero with Tawhao Stewart and Mitch Purvis from Tāne Ora Tairāwhiti, our new neighbours based out of in Treble Court, and who are part of the Tāiki e and Tauawhi Mens Centre whānau.

At Healthy Families East Cape, our mahi is grounded in prevention and systems change for long-term whānau wellbeing — and it is always powerful to connect with a rōpū like Tāne Ora Tairāwhiti who are walking a similar path. Their kaupapa is centred on disrupting the drivers of family harm and strengthening tāne and their whānau. We’re stoked to have them just around the corner.

We’re looking forward to the collaborations ahead, and excited to share the podcast that talks about some cool kaupapa we are all working on!

Go check out their new page and give them a follow 👉 Tane Ora Tairāwhiti

E te hāpori o Ōpōtiki, nei rā te mihi nui, te mihi aroha, te mihi manahau ki a koutou katoa i whai wāhi atu ki tēnei kaupapa. Koutou hoki, ā, , me Whakaatu Whanaunga Trust (CAYAD), ā mātou hoa haere. I rongo mātou i me reo o te hapori, me ngā manako nui katoa, ngā reo i whakairohia i tēnei tāpaetanga. "Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini"

To our Ōpōtiki community, thank you, thank you, thank you.

In February 2025, you shared your stories, your knowledge, and your lived realities around alcohol harm in our community. Your voices shaped the strength of our collective submission, which was formally delivered to the District Licensing Committee in March 2025.

To the whānau who bravely spoke of your losses, your hopes, and your intergenerational experiences, your words grounded this kaupapa. You are the heart of this movement.

We also give special thanks to our partners, Te Ao Hou Trust, Whakaatu Whanaunga Trust (CAYAD), and all those who stood with us, supported the process, and strengthened our collective voice. This kaupapa reminded us of the power of unity, the strength of community insight, and the importance of protecting future generations.

This isn’t just one submission. It is a statement of shared values. A stand for our whānau. A vision of wellbeing, sovereignty, and change.

With deep appreciation and respect, we acknowledge you, we honour you, and we walk forward together.

🚭 Be the Change – Help Our Rangatahi Breathe Easy 💨💚

At Healthy Families East Cape, we’re committed to building a future where our tamariki and rangatahi thrive, free from the harms of va**ng and addiction. That’s why we're excited to share an opportunity to step up, skill up, and be part of the solution!

The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation’s Vapefree Train the Trainer Workshop is happening this 7th & 8th August 2025 in Whakatāne. This will be a powerful wānanga designed to equip community leaders, educators, and champions with the tools to run effective, evidence-based vapefree workshops in their own rohe.

✨ If you're passionate about rangatahi wellbeing, community change, and leading from the front, this kaupapa is for you.

🔗 Register here: https://dontgetsuckedin.co.nz/ttt/

Let’s come together, strengthen our collective voice, and help create a future where hauora, not harm, leads the way.

Train the Trainers - Don't Get Sucked In New Zealand’s first training programme dedicated to youth va**ng education -equipping educators, health professionals, and community leaders with the tools to inform and empower rangatahi.

Today is world environment day, and we can think of no better time than now to raise awareness about Te Mana o te Taiao, DOC's draft plan.

📢 HAVE YOUR SAY: DOC’s DRAFT PLAN FOR TE MANA O TE TAIAO 2020
🗓️ Submissions close: 30 June 2025
🌿 WHY THIS MATTERS FOR OUR WHĀNAU

The Department of Conservation (DOC) has released a draft plan for how it will bring Te Mana o te Taiao: Aotearoa’s Biodiversity Strategy 2020 to life. This isn’t just about protecting plants and animals, it’s about restoring the health of our whenua, wai, and taonga species that sustain our people.

When the taiao thrives, so do our whānau. Clean water, healthy ngahere, and strong ecosystems are directly connected to our physical, spiritual, and collective wellbeing. This plan will influence how central and regional government invest in and care for these taonga until 2030 – and your voice is needed to shape it.

🔍 WHAT'S IN THE PLAN?
DOC is seeking feedback on four key areas:

1️⃣ Prioritising biodiversity – Deciding which taonga species and habitats need the most urgent support.
2️⃣ Boosting funding – Making it easier for whānau, hapū, and communities to access pūtea for conservation.
3️⃣ Using knowledge wisely – Strengthening decision-making with mātauranga Māori, data, and learnings from successful projects.
4️⃣ Growing skills and collaboration – Building capacity and relationships to protect our environment together.

✊🏽 WHY YOUR VOICE MATTERS

As tangata whenua, kaitiaki, and residents of Tairāwhiti, we have the right and responsibility to guide decisions that impact our lands, waters, and people. Our wellbeing is intertwined with the state of our environment. This is a chance to:

✔ Ensure Māori and Tairāwhiti voices are central in biodiversity plans
✔ Influence how and where conservation resources are used in our rohe
✔ Uphold the hauora of our environment and the generations to come

📣 HOW TO HAVE YOUR SAY
Visit the DOC website to read the draft plan, register for a webinar in May, and submit your feedback by 30 June: 👉🏾 https://shorturl.at/gnfnj

Kia toitū te taiao, kia toitū te iwi – Healthy environments mean healthy whānau. Let’s protect what sustains us. 🌿

Action for nature: Implementing New Zealand’s Biodiversity Strategy 2025-2030 public consultation Have your say on the next implementation plan for New Zealand’s Biodiversity Strategy. Submissions close at 5 pm on 30 June 2025.

As part of the Healthy Families NZ movement, Healthy Families East Cape have prioritised working in the food system as food plays an essential role in our health and wellbeing. We have worked in collaboration with our kai community and community champions to support the aspirations of our community so that they are able to access affordable and nourishing kai.

Alongside these Kaupapa partners, we envisage a future with local, sovereign food systems that are regenerative and protect our natural resources for generations to come.

This month, we were incredibly humbled once again to welcome the Māori-led research rōpū from Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka (Otago University) who are conducting research on the impacts of climate change on kai sovereignty and mental health in kai growers, gatherers and hunters in Te Tairāwhiti.

The collective wānanga kai, held in the heart of Ruatoria, brought together hau kāinga to explore the local food system through a systems-thinking lens. The wānanga also created space to elevate community voice, emphasising the deep interconnections between kai, whenua, wellbeing, and tino rangatiratanga.

Read more about the Wānanga Kai in Ruatoria, here:

Wānanga Kai, SH35 — Healthy Families East Cape Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou, ka ora ai te iwi - With your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive.   

💚 Movement building

Being a part of the Healthy Families NZ movement means that we are often and intentionally organising collectively, amongst the rest of our Healthy Families NZ whānau, to bring about systemic change.

Last week, our Practice Lead George Kingi spent time in West Auckland with our Healthy Families Waitākere team, an opportunity to deepen our collective understanding of tools for strategy, to connect with likeminded individuals and reflect on our collective challenges, lessons and opportunities for prevention in our regions.

To be surrounded by and supported by those who are as driven as us by common passions and intentions means that we are able to progress together, innovate, and support each other across our rohe and country.

George came home with a deep sense of appreciation of what we have here in Tairāwhiti, for the commonalities that exist in our two diverse rohe and the knowledge that working collectively is powerful.

We look forward to continued opportunities to connect and work with our Healthy Families NZ movement. Healthy Families East Cape also sends a strong mihi to our whānau in Waitakere.

Ko te Kuti, ko te Wera, ko te Haua, e ko Apanui

The Healthy Families East Cape team have been actively involved in systems change where mātauranga Māori, te reo Māori, and connection to te taiao are recognised as critical health prevention strategies.

Te Pārekereke o Apanui — Te Whānau a Apanui’s first Kura Reo Taiao, led by Hinerapa Rupuha and hosted at Ōtūwhare Marae was a wānanga where participants and whānau were fully immersed in te reo Māori, a wananga designed to revitalise our language and reconnect us to te taiao through hands-on learning experiences across our rohe, including Te Kura o Te Whānau a Apanui, Raukūmara Pae Maunga, Raukokore, Ōrini, as well as our local taiao, including our moana and ngahere.

Healthy Families East Cape Rautaki Maori, Jade Kameta, delivered the Mātai Whetū sessions each morning before dawn, sharing mātauranga Māori around Tātai Arorangi and practical applications of star knowledge in our everyday lives. Jade also engaged in various wānanga, including kai sovereignty (Kai-Tia-Kī), waka navigation (Whakatere Waka), waiata composition (Te Reo Waitī), raranga (Te Reo o Te Whare Pora), and fishing knowledge (Te Reo Taiao). A daily panel of kaumātua shared kōrero tuku iho, strengthening intergenerational learning.

“What an opportunity to imagine a world where kura reo taiao like Te Pārekereke o Apanui are the norm, and a normalised part of how Iwi, hapū and communities build health, resilience, and identity — grounded in their whakapapa, whenua, and taiao.”

Jade and Healthy Families East Cape would like to acknowledgment the kaumātua panel for their generous sharing of kura huna (hidden knowledge), and gratitude to all hosts and organisers, especially Te Whānau a Rūtaia and Ōtūwhare Marae.

Read more on the kaupapa here:

Ko te Kuti, ko te Wera, ko te Haua, e ko Apanui — Healthy Families East Cape Credits: Te Pārekereke o Apanui

Healthy Families East Cape and our Rautaki Māori, Jade Kameta, acknowledge the power, mana and individuals that sit within Te Pārekereke o Apanui.

If you don't already follow them on social media e te whānau, head on over to their page and take a look at the week that was...

Ko te Kuti, ko te Wera, ko te Haua, e ko Apanui.

💛🖤

Healthy Families East Cape aims to create smokefree environments and communities. Our work focuses on supporting people to quit smoking, protecting families from tobacco-related harm, and ensuring a smokefree Aotearoa New Zealand by 2025, where all population groups have a smoking rate of under 5%. We achieve this by increasing awareness, motivating behavior change, and promoting smoke-free environments.

Today, our Rautaki Māori Jade joined the Eastern Bay Of Plenty smokefree coalition in our regular hui. With WORLD SMOKEFREE DAY coming up on 31 May, the time right now is ripe for discussions around a smokefree and vapefree future for our Ōpōtiki and EBOP communities.

Watch this space!

💚 RAUAWAAWA - Healthy Families NZ Mātauranga Māori Impact Report

Healthy Families East Cape are proud to release our national Mātauranga Māori Impact Report ‘Rauawaawa’.

Rauawaawa represents and reflects our whakakitenga (vision) for the future we hope for, where whānau are self-determining, empowered to be healthy, and where Māori systems and practices are the status quo, supporting and nurturing the wellbeing of our people and environments.

We are sharing Rauawaawa to raise awareness of mātauranga Māori in the context of our Healthy Families NZ approach, but also how we utilise these systems to positively impact the health outcomes of our people.

Within Rauawaawa, are stories from each of our teams demonstrating how we are amplifying Māori systems as prevention solutions. Each of these stories are examples of how mātauranga and health prevention are understood, appreciated and grown in Aotearoa.

As champions of mātauranga Māori, maramataka, health prevention and innovation, we recognise that leaving a legacy worthy of our uri whakaheke (descendants) is of the utmost importance.

Rauawaawa is a testament to our journey so far.

You can view Rauawaawa on our website at www.healthyfamiliesnz.org.nz/publications

It's not often an incredible opportunity comes up like this - to work with whānau and support their journey towards the ultimate hauora, to build strong connections in the community, and grow skills and experience in kaupapa-driven mahi.

At Te Ao Hou Trust, we pride ourselves on being a supportive, values-based team who strive for collective community wellbeing. Click below to read more about this awesome opportunity to come and work alongside the Eastern Bay of Plenty community.

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Te Ao Hou Trust has an opportunity for someone who wants to:

💛 Work with whānau and support their journey
🤝 Build strong connections in the community
📖 Grow skills and experience in kaupapa-driven mahi
🙌 Be part of a supportive, values-based team

If this sounds like you, Click the link 🔗https://www.teaohou.org.nz/current-opportunities to apply now!