He Hikinga Pūngao

He Hikinga Pūngao is a video series to promote whānau-oriented, community-led physical activity kaupapa in Te Awa Kairangi. The Healthy Families Hutt Valley team has been working with Māori organisations and marae who are creating better health and wellbeing outcomes for the people of Te Awa Kairangi to capture stories that are by Māori, for Māori, and with Māori.

As we continue to ‘Grow our understanding and practice through pou’ as the basis of our values-based approach to Māori Systems Return, we’ve created actions that seek to align to each pou, while simultaneously achieving systems change. Each pou has a distinct kaupapa, and the hauora pou has a direct alignment to He Hikinga Pūngao. 

He Hikinga Pūngao demonstrates the meaningful impact that can be achieved when we action a whole-of-community approach to amplify local Māori voices and perspectives on health and wellbeing. He Hikinga Pūngao aims to highlight how local Māori community champions use tikanga such as whanaungatanga and manaakitanga to create safe environments for people to engage with physical activity. The video series leans on local Māori community champions to amplify their voice.

It is a collection of stories told by the people who are making a difference in Te Awa Kairangi by promoting mātauranga Māori based physical activity we can support, enable and encourage whānau to connect to.

The name ‘He Hikinga Pūngao’ can be directly translated to ‘a rising energy’ and was chosen because of the power it holds to motivate community members to take charge of their hauora and create an awareness about the inspiring kaupapa hauora happening in our communities across Te Awa Kairangi.  

Healthy Families Hutt Valley acted as the collector and curator of these rich local stories. Each episode is unique, and focuses on the distinct passions, stories, journeys and mātauranga of each participant.

He Hikinga Pūngao was made possible due to the collective willingness of our community champions. Thank you to HYPE fitness, Ahikā CrossFit, Ngā Hau e Whā, and Kōkiri Waka Ama for being so generous with your stories. Thank you to Piks Media for capturing and editing this series, and thank you to the local artists who produced the music and artwork for He Hikinga Pūngao.

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Ki te kotahi te kākaho, ka whati, ki te kapuia, e kore e whati. | When we stand alone we are vulnerable, but together we are unbreakable.