Wanting your whānau to start exercising and eat healthy isn’t unusual: setting up the world’s first Māori endurance event to make sure it happens is.

For Māori, sedentary lifestyles, poor nutrition and obesity are a major and growing cause of preventable disease and early death. That’s why IronMāori founders Heather Skipworth and Missy Mackey decided back in 2009 that it was time to do something for whānau, starting with their own. Their husbands joined the IronMāori dream along with trustee Lee Grace and, five short years later, they all wonder what they used to do with their weekends.

“A kaupapa focusing on improving the health and wellbeing of Māori people is what IronMāori is all about,” say Heather and Missy. “From kaumātua and kuia to their mokopuna; we now have tamariki and rangatahi events held in conjunction with our half ironman event that means we can cater for the whole whānau.”

They set up Te Tīmatanga Ararau Trust in December 2007 to help Māori make lifestyle changes through increased exercise, improved diet and nutrition. With backing from Te Puni Kōkiri, December 2009 saw 300 IronMāori competitors hit the waters and roads of Heretaunga in the first Māori-based half ironman. Three years later those numbers have soared to more than 2,100. In June IronMāori goes global with the first event taking place across the Tasman on the Gold Coast, while January 2014 will see the inaugural IronMāori Kaumātua event (55-years-plus). The Trust has extensive networks into Māori and Pasifika communities in their region and growing networks across Aotearoa New Zealand.

“IronMāori competitors choose to make major lifestyle changes in order to take part. Eventually those changes become embedded in their everyday life, ultimately spreading throughout their whānau,” say Heather and Missy.