Ngā kiko

The conditions that shape hauora in Te Tai Tokerau did not appear by chance — they are the accumulation of decisions made over generations, many of which removed power, land, language, and healing knowledge from our people. Our mahi today is a direct response to that history. We work to reshape the environments whānau move through, return decision-making power to hapori, back rangatahi to lead their own solutions, and embed mātauranga Māori into the systems that shape daily life. We address the root causes of preventable illness rather than its symptoms — strengthening kai sovereignty, building local resilience, and shifting the narratives that hold our communities back from thriving. This is not new thinking. It is a return to what our tūpuna always knew.

Te Rūnanga o Whaingaroa brought a deepened focus on building capability and working in complexity. This was also the period of Covid-19, which surfaced the inequities already present in Te Tai Tokerau — and showed that when it needs to, the system has the capacity to shift.

The health inequities visible in Te Tai Tokerau today are not inevitable — they are the accumulated result of generations of decisions that removed power, land, language, and healing knowledge from our people. Healthy Families NZ was established across Aotearoa in 2014 to address those upstream conditions through systems change and community leadership. In Te Tai Tokerau, Healthy Families Far North began — with Te Rūnanga o Te Rarawa carrying the kaupapa from 2014, before Te Rūnanga o Whaingaroa took up the contract in 2019.

The Māori Language Act 1987 made Māori an official language of New Zealand and established Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, the Māori Language Commission. This was a hard-won recognition — the result of decades of advocacy, petition, and protest by Māori communities who refused to let their language disappear. For Te Tai Tokerau, whose people had long carried te reo as a living taonga, it was a moment of formal acknowledgement of what had always been true.

By 1975, fewer than 5% of Māori school children could speak te reo — the result of decades of policy that punished children for speaking their own language. In response, whānau and kaumātua established the first kōhanga reo in 1982, immersing tamariki in te reo from birth. The first kura kaupapa Māori followed in 1985 — creating a full immersion pathway through primary school and returning mātauranga Māori to the centre of learning.

Led by 79-year-old Whina Cooper, the 1975 Land March left from Te Hāpua — the tail of the fish, the heart of Te Tai Tokerau. Growing from 50 marchers to thousands, the hīkoi carried one clear message: not one more acre of Māori land. The severing of whānau from their whenua had already taken a profound toll — on identity, on food sovereignty, on the social and spiritual connections that sustain hauora. The Land March contributed to the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal, giving Māori a formal process to name what had been done — and to demand redress.

Two pieces of legislation struck at the heart of Māori wellbeing. The Native Schools Act of 1867 established state-controlled schools where instruction was conducted in English — over time, many Māori children were physically punished for speaking their own language, with lasting impacts on identity, whānau wellbeing, and intergenerational hauora. The Tohunga Suppression Act of 1907 criminalised traditional Māori healing knowledge, severing communities from rongoā and the practices that had sustained hauora for generations. Together these acts dismantled the very systems that had kept our people well.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi was first signed at Waitangi, in the heart of Te Tai Tokerau. The Māori text promised the protection of tino rangatiratanga — Māori authority over their lands, villages, and taonga. What followed was a systematic breach of those promises, with lasting consequences for the health and wellbeing of our people.

On 28 October 1835, 34 northern rangatira signed He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni at Waitangi — asserting that mana and sovereign power resided fully with Māori, and that foreigners would not be allowed to make laws. Signed in the heart of Te Tai Tokerau, it was a bold declaration that Māori systems of governance, healing, and decision-making were intact and sovereign. What followed — through Treaty breaches, land loss, and legislative suppression — was a systematic dismantling of those very systems, with lasting consequences for the hauora of our people.

Before colonisation, Māori communities in Te Tai Tokerau thrived. Whānau held authority over their own decisions. Environments were shaped by mātauranga Māori — food systems, water, land, and healing practices that kept people well. Te reo carried the knowledge that sustained communities across generations. Hauora was woven into the fabric of daily life.