06/10/2026
NGĀ KETE WANANGA SOLUTIONS
🥊 FIGHT FOR MAURI 🥊
A lot of you have been asking when Nga Kete Wananga Solutions will be holding our next fight event. I’m looking at bringing one together early next year, whanau, and I want to share the heart behind the new name and the emblem we’ll be carrying.
Tbh whanau, I wasn’t planning on organising another one. There are so many beautiful fight kaupapa happening, and I’ve been loving attending and supporting …and organising one takes over your bloody life for a bit 😂 The hours, the chasing things up, the responsibility of making sure everyone is looked after… it takes a lot out of you whanau.
But some have encouraged me to keep ours going because they don’t want to see the kaupapa or the momentum built get lost. They’re ready to roll up their sleeves and put the mahi in, and that means a lot. So here we go, whanau - let’s keep it moving. 🥊❤️
When I look at our people, I think about the part of recovery you don’t see from the outside. Waking up and having to choose again, even when everything in you wants to go back to what helped you numb it all. Trying to sit with memories and feelings you’ve spent years trying to quiet. Wanting things to be different, while the familiar is still pulling at you.
Some days, the climb is getting through the next hour. Answering that call instead of shutting everyone out. Telling someone you’re struggling before it gets on top of you. And if you slip, finding the courage to come back, knowing how hard it is to face yourself let alone anyone else.
That’s the journey I want us to recognise, whānau. The mahi of learning to feel safe within yourself, to be present with your tamariki, to find some balance when you’ve been carrying so much for so long. When someone steps into that ring, they bring all those unseen steps with them. I want them to know we see the effort. We see the climb. And we’re beside them as they keep going.
That climb is woven into our emblem through te aka matua, the vine Tāne climbed to receive ngā kete e toru Tuatea, Tuauri and Aronui.
TE AKA MATUA
The vine winding around our tohu represents the climb of our ākonga , their journey through recovery towards Whakahoki Mauri. Every step, every struggle, every time they’ve had to find their footing and begin again. Some days they can reach forward; other days, holding on takes everything they have. Along that vine are the hands that have helped steady them and, as they grow stronger, their own hand reaching back to help another. It carries the journey that brought them to the ring, and the journey they will continue when they step out of it.
NGĀ KETE O TE WANANGA
At the centre sit the three kete our akonga receive on their journey of recovery with Ngā Kete Wānanga Solutions. They carry the mātauranga, understanding and tools gathered along the way knowledge they can draw on when life gets hard, and carry home into their relationships and their whānau.
WHAKAHOKI MAURI
Whakahoki Mauri is bringing balance back to themselves. Nurturing their wairua, hinengaro and tinana. Reconnecting with whakapapa and the people and places that ground them. Learning what helps them settle, what strengthens them, and how to care for themselves as they move forward.
FIGHT FOR MAURI
From that purpose comes FIGHT FOR MAURI a commitment to restoring and nurturing that balance, and backing our people in the mahi it takes to sustain it.
The gloves sit beneath our kete because the fighter carries that journey into the ring. The vine honours their climb. The kete hold the mātauranga they carry. Whakahoki Mauri brings it all together.
When that bell rings, I want our fighters to feel a room full of people behind them. People who recognise that getting there has already taken something out of them and who will still be backing them when the gloves come off.
The fight has a final bell. Our backing for their recovery must carry on beyond it.
That’s the heart of Fight For Mauri, whanau. More kōrero to come as we bring this kaupapa together for next year. 🌿🥊❤️
Isabella Tane-Wilcox
