Wairau basketballers, on a path to greater hauora

Wairua CAMHs Rangatahi Basketball Team Finish 3rd Year of playing together

It’s well known that rangatahi who stay active and participate in sport, are less likely than their sedentary peers to smoke, drink or take other health risks. Basically, there’s less time to get into trouble!

Over the last three years, John Hart, Whānau Navigator in our Wairau office has encouraged rangatahi supported by Te Piki Oranga’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHs) mentoring programme, to get involved in playing sport, in particular basketball. During this time, he has put forward a team in the Marlborough Basketball Associations Winter League.

John says: “Most of the players don’t play any other team sports, so being involved in basketball is a great vehicle for greater hauora.”

The players are aged between 12 and 16 years of age, and play in a senior mixed competition on Wednesday evenings over the winter months and often bring their friends along as ring-ins.

Two of the players are from the original team from three years ago and one of the team’s youngest players has been asked to trial for a under 13 rep team!

With the winter season now at an end, the team has secured additional funding from Kaitoa Charitable Trust for the summer league. And the team are taking things seriously by moving into the gym for boxing and cardio training, as well as playing fun games.

The team has been possible because of support from the Marlborough Violence Intervention Project, Marlborough Lines, Te Piki Oranga and the Kaitoa Charitable Trust.

Thanks to these organisation and John’s dedication our rangatahi benefit in many ways.  The team has been given the opportunity to get out and use their energy positively, find their competitive sides and change their values for the better. They have been able to grow positive friendships, improve their social skills and better their hauora.

One noticeable comment from the bench was that “bullying is not acceptable within this team.” What a wonderful lesson to learn in such a positive and fun environment.

Pēpi Comes First For Naomi. Smoke Free and Loving It

A young woman’s strength to quit smoking for the sake of her unborn baby was celebrated with a special gift and acknowledgment. Naomi Te Kiri’s was supported to quit smoking with the guidance of her quit coach Sonia Hepi Treanor.

Sonia and Naomi came together through Pēpi First, a free programme that supports pregnant women to quit smoking and rewards them with grocery vouchers along the way.

“It was such a challenge to quit, the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Having a quit coach beside me was the 20% extra I needed alongside the 80% I put in myself,” Naomi says.

Sonia, Te Hā Pūkenga Manaaki of Te Piki Oranga Māori Wellness Services, says that the Pēpi First model of one-on-one support is key to success, especially for hapū mama.

“It’s all about building relationships and trust. We continue to support women for six weeks once pēpi is born but usually find that if a wahine is smoke-free in the second or third trimester she is usually smoke-free post-partum,” Sonia says.

Naomi is gifted donated a beautiful flax basket designed for the burial of a pēpi’s whenua (placenta) and pito (umbilical cord) by Flax Farewells for going the extra mile to honour a pēpi who is growing inside.

Ending period poverty in Marlborough

Let’s talk periods! 

It is a fact of life that sanitary supplies are a necessity that many wahine go without. More than half* of Kiwi women find them too expensive, with a third prioritising buying other items like food and nappies for tamariki over the purchase of these products for themselves.

Worringly almost 30% of teenagers aged below 17 years old have missed school or work because they have their period and don’t have sanitary items. This is gender inequality, pure and simple. Our rangatahi should have no barriers to going to school or work.

Over the past 12 months, Te Piki Oranga in Wairau has had the privilege of accessing support through Pink Packets. Pink Packets is a women-led Marlborough charity providing free sanitary items to women in need throughout the region. Their mission is to end period poverty in Marlborough by collecting donations of sanitary products and putting together packs to be distributed through local agencies.

We are so grateful for the mahi these wahine toa do for our mothers, sisters, daughters, and wider community of women in Marlborough. Ka nui te aroha to you Pink Packets!

If you are in Marlborough and wanting to contribute to the fight against period poverty, please look out for the pink donation bins around local supermarkets and visit the Pink Packets Facebook page for more information on how you can help.

If you know someone who needs help accessing sanitary products in Marlborough, please do not hesitate to contact our Wairau office or contact the ladies at Pink Packets directly on the contact details below.

www.facebook/pinkpacketscharity

email: marlbwomanscentre@gmail.com

phone: Milinda 027 389 7816

* 2018 nationwide survey

Whānau give back to their community and work on their wellness

Whānau give back to their community and work on their wellness

In August this year, our Wairau team started to run the award-winning Te Pae Oranga programme with the Police, with successful outcomes in the first month. 

Rather than ending up in court or a cell, Te Pae Oranga is an opportunity for people 17 years and over to repair the harm their minor offending has caused their community, and to have health challenges addressed. Te Pae Oranga is credited with bringing an 11.9 percent fall in reoffending among Māori aged 17 to 24.

People who have perhaps shop-lifted, stolen a bike on the street, or driven without a license, meet with an Iwi Community Panel to talk about who they are, where they are from, and why they did it. The panel listens and uncovers any unaddressed issues, before agreeing to appropriate reparation and accessing health services for the offenders. 

In its first month, the Wairau Iwi Community Panel worked with 21 people, mostly aged between 18 and 25 years old, with great success. Two examples of reparation for minor offences include a fisherman giving Te Piki Oranga 20 kilograms of fish for whānau in our Wairau community who need food. Another person has committed to assisting a local rugby club with coaching. These are positive outcomes that are appropriate to these people and their offending, and are meaningful to the community.

As well as working through how people would repair the harm they caused, the panel identified a number of undiagnosed or unsupported health problems, such as mental health or drug issues. Links have now been made to appropriate services to help them get better. 

Addressing the underlying reasons for offending is an important part of the holistic Te Pau Oranga process, rather than incarceration, after which, the statistics show, it is highly likely that people will reoffend.

Te Piki Oranga has been running Te Pae Oranga for 26 months in Whakatū, with more than 200 people having successfully worked with the local Iwi Community Panel.

Successful flu vax at Ūkaipō

Successful flu vax at Ūkaipō

By: Ricky Carr, Pūkenga Kaiwhakahaere - Wairau (Site Manager - Blenheim)

Tuesday, the 12th day of May dawned, and there were several people gathered at Ukaipo (Grovetown, Marlborough) from 8.00 am onward. Rangitane staff had been preparing the Ukaipo site in the preceding days for what was to become the most successful flu vax site that Te Piki Oranga has been associated with this season.

The venue owned and operated by Rangitane is situated in Grovetown between Spring Creek and Blenheim. Event's organiser Donna Grace had been in touch with Rangitane iwi regarding this vaccine clinic, there had been one hundred and five responses to the initial invitation, and as usual, we had begged & borrowed vaccines to ensure we had sufficient stock on hand to ensure no one was turned away.

The clinic was planned to commence at 10:00 am till 2:00 pm; however, we were in the middle of our karakia at 9:30 am when the first of 150 participants started arriving.

Marlborough PHO staff; Glenis McAlpine, Ange Mills, Christine Andrews and Victoria Leo were swabbing and delivering the vaccines. Te Piki Oranga staff; Mary Johnsen, Brenda Chilvers and Viv Tuhimata - Weke were supporting with logistics and administration. The Rangitane team were headed by; Nick Chin (CEO) Taylor MacDonald, Allan MacDonald, Kereana Norton and Elsie Elkington.

At about 2.00 pm, staff were thankful that there was a lull in the car park traffic, which enabled those assembled to have a hearty lunch kindly organised by Rangitane staff.

There have been several positive comments about the organisation of this clinic and how effective this made the whole process. Our thanks to both, Rangitane, MPHO and Te Piki Oranga staff for such a marvellous outcome.

While this was the largest of the clinics held during the lockdown, two further clinics were held in April at Waikawa Marae and in the Health hub carpark in central Blenheim. Overall, there were more than 300 vaccines delivered through these mobile clinic initiatives.

Wairua Hauora

Wairua Hauora

By John Tipene

I have spent most of my life in and out of the justice system, which included spending time in prison. In October 2019, I was fortunate enough to attend the Māori Tikanga Wannga run by Te Piki Oranga at Te Hora Pa in Canvastown.

Te Piki Oranga Māori Wellness Service has been supporting me with my hauora since I moved to Blenheim and have set me in a path of wellness. To be accepted into the wānanga, I needed to undergo an assessment to find out what I knew about topics such as manaakitanga, whanau, wairua, Atuatanga and many other Māori protocols, practices and processes. These Māori values were not new to me as I was brought up by my kaumatua and kuia as a young boy. As I grew older, I began to lose my way and therefore lost the things that my kaumatua and kuia taught me. I started using drugs and alcohol, which led to committing crimes to feed my addiction which in turn isolated me from my ancestors and the teachings of my tupuna and messed my life.

At the Tikanga Wananga I was able to reconnect with the values of the marae, our kaumatua Pita Pou and kuia Ngawhakaara led us through tikanga and kawa of the marae. We woke up before dawn to the sound of our kuia’s karanga and karakia from our kaumatua. We were able to listen to the first waiata of the manu as the sun started to rise.

Our tutor Sonny Alesana took us into “knowing who we are” by providing us with a session on pepeha, he guided us through a presentation on manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, atuatanga and our roles as males and our wahine were also guided through these same topics by our kuia. The wananga was very intense, but at the same time, we were able to relax with kapa haka and of course plenty of kai.

As I touched on at the beginning of this article, I spent time in prison as a result of abuse, sexual abuse, violence. I was a patched gang member; in short, I was a feared man. I suffered from mental health issues as a result of many years of drug use and neglected the teachings of my elders. My wairua, my connections to my marae, ancestors and those important aspects of who I become a burden to me, played with my wairua.

My Journey Back to Me At the conclusion of the wananga at Te Hora Pā, I was given the opportunity to meet with Ariki Te Wairemana. This meeting took place in Motueka. Pūkenga Manaaki Brenda from Te Piki Oranga supported me. I was apprehensive and anxious about the meeting. Sonny met us, and we entered Ariki’s whare. The instant I entered the whare, I was transported back to the days I spent with my koroua and kuia. Ariki was able to tell me things about myself and my ancestors that only I knew. We did karakia, we sang old waiata, we did mihi, but mostly we sat in silence, and I started to cry uncontrollably. I felt an overwhelming sense of relief, clarity and calmness that I had not felt for a long time. My stomach felt lite for the first time in a long time! I didn’t understand what was happening to me, but I knew that my journey to knowing and forgiving myself has begun. As a young boy, I was exposed to these taonga through my kuia, but I had no understanding of it. I know that my journey will have its challenges, and I know that not everything will pan out the way I want it. I know that there is a long list of people that I need to connect with to try and make right the wrong I had caused. I also know that my mental health will continue to be a barrier. Still, I do believe that my wairua healing has begun.

My goal is to wean myself from modern medication slowly. Then continue my journey into wellness through my culture, my artwork and continuing to work with my Te Piki Oranga whānau.