2026 Waves Conference: Te Ara Kauhoe Meets the National Stage

In 2024 Healthy Families East Cape had the privilege of presenting our kaupapa Taurikura at the Waves Conference. We shared the kaupapa Māori approach to swimming that builds community capability by bringing together water safety, cultural identity, local waterways and mātauranga Māori to create confidence, and connection to wai. This August we're honoured to return to the conference to share another kaupapa Te Ara Kauhoe. 

Being invited back is exciting but the real success is seeing a kaupapa that began with a need to build local swimming instructors along State Highway 35, begin to create lasting change. Many hapori across Te Tairāwhiti face limited access to swimming lessons and water safety education. With few qualified swimming instructors based along the East Coast and significant travel required to access training, opportunities to build local capability have been limited. Te Ara Kauhoe invests in local people to become qualified instructors within their own communities. 

HFEC works behind the scenes to create the conditions that make the kaupapa possible. We bring kaupapa partners together, support to broker funding, embed mātauranga Māori and tikanga throughout the programme, and support the systems, relationships and shared learning that allow others to lead. By strengthening these foundations, we're helping create a pathway that can continue well beyond one programme or funding cycle. 

Over the past year our first cohort of tauira from Uawa, Tokomaru Bay, Ruatoria, Wharekahika and Tūranga have been progressing through theory, and practical teaching as they work towards becoming qualified swimming instructors. Like many kaupapa working across rural communities, the journey hasn't been without its challenges. Staying connected with tauira spread across the region has highlighted the realities of geographic isolation, competing commitments and the need for flexible ways of learning and supporting people through qualifications. These experiences have helped shape how we strengthen the programme for future cohorts, reinforcing that systems change is about continuously learning and adapting. Despite these challenges we're already seeing encouraging signs of change. 

A number of our tauira recently completed their qualification booklets, which brings us closer to having 50% of the first cohort complete the programme. We're seeing local people build the skills and confidence to become swimming instructors within their own hapori. This means more opportunities for tamariki and whānau to learn from trusted local faces who understand their people, their places and their connection to the wai. 

The kaupapa is also strengthening partnerships across the region. By working alongside organisations that deliver qualifications and swimming education. Healthy Families East Cape is helping build a more connected and sustainable system for water safety funding, training, and community leadership. 

As we prepare to present Te Ara Kauhoe at the Waves Conference, we're proud to share a different way of creating change. A systems approach that grows local capability, strengthens partnerships and invests in communities to lead their own solutions. 

The impact reaches beyond the puna wai when local people become local leaders. It creates stronger hapori, safer tamariki and a future where our whānau have greater confidence in and around the wai. 

Our team will be presenting on Wednesday 26th of August at 14:10.

For more on the Waves Conference: https://recreationaotearoa.glueup.com/event/waves-2026-157610/agenda.html#