Hāpai Te Hauora Encourages Tāne Māori To "soften Up"

Te Wiki Hauora Tāne (Men’s Health Week) is here (12-18 June), and it’s an opportunity for the tāne in our lives to pause, reflect on their health and bring their whānau and loved ones along for the journey. Current statistics show that tāne in Aotearoa have a lower life expectancy than wāhine and experience poorer health outcomes; the story is even worse for tāne Māori who are overrepresented in statistics for prostate and testicular cancers and heart disease, with death by suicide the leading cause of death for tāne between the ages of 15 -30.

"The state of Māori men’s health in 2023 is deplorable, and the kicker is, that many of the health challenges that whānau are facing are largely preventable," says Jason Alexander, Interim CEO of Hāpai Te Hauora.

"Too many lives are ending prematurely, with our tāne Māori experiencing worse health outcomes than any other group. More resources need to be invested in developing strategies and interventions that contextualise the unique challenges that our tāne Māori face."

In the spirit of Te Wiki Hauora Tāne, Hāpai Te Hauora in partnership with Soften Up Bro, will launch IRA 2.0, a kaupapa focused on deconstructing the toxic masculine and colonised identities of what it means to be a tāne Māori in 2023. IRA stands for Interal Reflective Action, this kaupapa will flip the script on the "harden up" message that has been ingrained into generations of tāne Māori.

Nīkau Reti-Beazley, a Public Health Advisor at Hāpai says, "I am looking forward to being part of a safe space that encourages tāne Māori to sit down and talk about the struggles that tāne deal with on a day to day & how we can manage them appropriately. The old narrative that tāne need to always harden up & can't show emotion has done more harm than good. I believe tāne will benefit greatly from having wānanga like these & more importantly, they will leave with the appropriate tools that they can take into their own homes."

"He taonga te kōrero - communicating with other like-minded tāne can have a positive effect on you & your hauora."

Join Hāpai Te Hauora and the Soften Up team on Wednesday 14th of June at Zeal West Henderson, 9am-3pm for a day of wānanga, good kōrero and kai.

Register for IRA 2.0 here.

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