He Tau Kaha Anō - A year in review 2025
Tae Ora Tinana has had another busy and meaningful year, grounded in kaupapa Māori and focused on strengthening equity, leadership, and collective capability within the physiotherapy profession. As a volunteer organisation these yearly wins continue to inspire action and aspiration for the years ahead.
Strengthening Strategic Partnerships
Our long-standing relationship with Physiotherapy New Zealand (PNZ) has continued to be a central pillar of our mahi. This year, we worked alongside PNZ to support key moments of transition and leadership, including the poroaki for outgoing CEO Sandra Kirby and the mihi whakatau welcoming new CEO Simon Hoar.
Beyond these milestones, our collaboration has deepened through shared strategic work focused on improving equity for Māori within the profession. A significant highlight this year was Tae Ora Tinana leading the Ingoa Māori consultation process for PNZ’s current Ingoa Māori. This mahi required careful facilitation, tikanga-led engagement, and whakawhiti kōrero across the motu, and represents an important step toward discussions and reflections on how we can continue to align with Te Tiriti ō waitangi within our professional context.
Building Cultural Capability Across the Profession
Over the past year, Tae Ora Tinana has continued to facilitate cultural capability courses for physiotherapists. Uptake has been strong, reflecting a growing appetite across the profession to engage more deeply with Te Ao Māori, cultural safety, and hauora Māori. Feedback from participants has been consistently positive, with many highlighting the value of practical, reflective learning grounded in real-world clinical contexts.
“The materiel was excellent with a great over view of the topics. The self-directed learning activities helped me to personalize it to my own situation.” (Course participant, 2024)
This mahi aligns with our wider commitment to supporting physiotherapists to practise in ways that are mana-enhancing, culturally safe, and responsive to whānau Māori.
Growing and Formalising Relationships
We have also expanded our engagement with key stakeholder groups across the sector. This includes ongoing kōrero and relationship-building with:
Tertiary education providers;
The Pacifica Physiotherapy Association and;
The Physiotherapy Board of New Zealand
These relationships are being progressively formalised to ensure clarity of purpose, shared expectations, and long-term impact. Together, they strengthen pathways for Māori students, support workforce development, and reinforce collective responsibility for equity across the profession. Outside of these 3 groups, Tae Ora Tinana is currently in conversations with other stakeholder groups that align with Tae Ora Tinana’s directions and aspirations.
Supporting Our People and Creating Pathways
A core function of Tae Ora Tinana continues to be connecting kaimahi Māori and our wider network with meaningful opportunities—whether in governance, advisory roles, education, research, or sector leadership. To better support this, we introduced a new role this year: Kaitautoko.
The Kaitautoko role is a volunteer role designed to enable people to contribute to short-term, project-based mahi, matching skills and availability with kaupapa needs. This role complements the ongoing governance and leadership responsibilities held by our Kaitiaki (Executive Committee) and reflects a more flexible, sustainable way for people to work within Tae Ora Tinana over time.
Alongside this, we completed important internal foundations work, including the development of a renewed constitution, which will be looking to have voting on in 2026; ensuring our mahi continues to be guided by clear expectations, tikanga Māori, and collective accountability.
Celebrating Māori Leadership in Physiotherapy
This year has also provided moments to celebrate Māori excellence and leadership across the physiotherapy landscape. We acknowledge and celebrate:
Katrina Bryant, for her leadership and contribution through Taurite Tū
Arliah Davis, recognised as the first Māori Advanced Practice Physiotherapist
These achievements matter. They signal what is possible when Māori leadership is supported, visible, and valued—and they provide inspiration for tauira and early-career physiotherapists coming through the profession.
Looking Ahead
As we reflect on the year, we are proud of the steady, values-driven progress made across governance, education, partnership, and workforce development. Tae Ora Tinana remains committed to growing our network, supporting our people, and working collectively to advance hauora Māori within physiotherapy.
We look forward to continuing this mahi in the coming year—deepening relationships, creating opportunities, and holding fast to the kaupapa that guides us.
As we come to the closing point of the year, the kaitiaki of Tae Ora Tinana wish everyone a happy and safe end of year break. Hei ā tērā tau e te iwi mā!
Ngā Manaakitanga,
Nā Witana Petley - Tūmuaki ō Tae Ora Tinana
