While men’s health in Aotearoa continues to face severe underinvestment, a global men’s health charity has put its money where its mouth is and has committed $63 million over seven years to improve the social and emotional wellbeing of indigenous men and boys across Australia, Aotearoa, Canada and the United States.
Even better, Movember has recently announced Te Tauihu-based Hawaiki Kura as its first New Zealand Innovation Grant recipient!
Kiley and Donna Nepia, co-founders of Hawaiki Kura, have been running Tāne Te Waiora for a few years now and are now recognised leaders in their field. The programme aims to transform the social, emotional, and overall wellbeing of its participants by fostering a profound sense of cultural reclamation, healing and community connection.
Through a strengths-based, mana-enhancing approach, Tāne te Waiora offers an authentic and safe space for tāne Māori to be empowered and reconnect with their identity, heal from intergenerational trauma and establish a strong community of like-minded individuals. Participants engage with taonga tuku iho (ancestral gifts) and mātauranga Māori, learning to integrate these timeless teachings into their lives in ways that foster oranga (holistic wellbeing) and cultural confidence.
Kiley says it has been humbling for their work to be recognised by Movember.
“Movember is a serious player and they are committed to the idea that we hold our own solutions. We don’t need another expert-led framework or study telling us what is wrong with us. We’re focused on positive change, and we see it every time we hold a wānanga. For a global organisation to recognise that gives us tremendous hope.
“We firmly believe when you heal the tane, you heal the whole whānau.”
Demand for the Hawaiki Kura model has grown beyond expectations and wānanga are now being delivered nationally.