07 Apr Toi Ako Webinar: Dr Ihirangi Heke
A Mātauranga Māori approach to physical activity while living in isolation, This Toi Ako Webinar is hosted by Atua Matua expert Dr Ihirangi Heke.
This webinar coalesce three decades of working in the outdoor environment into contemporary examples of surviving the recently imposed isolation. Dr Heke introduces ideas on how to bring the outdoors inside with an introduction to Atua Matua: A Māori Health Framework. Also included are examples of health and well-being obtained without leaving your own backyard by learning how to read trees, insects, birds and changes in weather patterns. Likewise Dr Heke provides some insight into the planning of training programs to last you through the isolation period and beyond.
About The Presenter
Dr Ihirangi Heke, of Tainui-Waikato descent, was raised in the South Island mountain adventure environment, before it was popularly known as such. A graduate of Otago University, he has lectured there and built a career based on helping athletes, both ordinary and elite, achieve goals beyond their expectations.
Over the past 15 years he has been active in helping Māori and other indigenous groups abroad, build their own health and wellness activities based on their own traditional environmental knowledge.
Before the nationwide lockdown, on any one day of the week you could find Dr Ihi mountain biking with Te Arawa people in Rotorua, playing traditional games with students in Kaikohe, at a trekking meeting in the snow in Japan, or in a virtual meeting with colleagues from Auckland University, Brookings Institute Washington as well as a marae in Uawa.
This is all part of him joining the dots to enable Māori and other indigenous peoples to define and determine their own health pathways and solutions as defined by their local environments.