Te Hou Ora Whānau Services is proud to be one of Aotearoa's partners in the SPIRIT Project (Supporting Play and Intergenerational Relationships with Indigenous Traditions), a global Indigenous collaboration that recognises play as a powerful pathway to wellbeing, identity, connection and belonging.

Bringing together Indigenous organisations, researchers and communities from Aotearoa, Australia, Canada and the United States, SPIRIT explores how cultural knowledge, relationships and play can strengthen tamariki, whānau and communities. The project is supported through the LEGO Foundation's Build a World of Play Challenge and is led internationally by the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, with Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pōmare at the University of Otago leading the Aotearoa partnership.

For Te Hou Ora, SPIRIT is a natural extension of the way we already work. We have always believed that healing, learning and growth happen through strong relationships, connection to whakapapa and te taiao, and opportunities for tamariki and whānau to experience joy, curiosity and play together.

Through SPIRIT, we continue to develop culturally grounded spaces where Indigenous ways of knowing are celebrated and where play is recognised not simply as recreation, but as an essential part of healthy development, identity and collective wellbeing. By sharing our experiences while learning alongside Indigenous partners from around the world, we are contributing to a growing movement that places culture, whānau and community at the heart of children's wellbeing.

Check out more HERE 

Creating an Indigenous World of Play	Global SPIRIT Collective 2026
John Hopkins | Puketeraki 2025	SPIRIT | Te Hou Ora Whānau Services 2024
Global Gathering | Mparntwe 2024	SPIRIT | USA 2024