Editorial: IronMaori rekindles optimism

Heather Skipworth is the founder of IronMaori.

Hot on the heels of the annual IronMaori event at the weekend, Heather Skipworth has today been announced as a runner-up in the Hawke's Bay Today Person of the Year competition.

And rightfully so.

The IronMaori founder, visionary, and organiser has been suitably praised since she first created the event helping improve the health and wellbeing of Maori and Pacific Islanders.

However, this year both IronMaori (which attracted about 2500 participants) and the accolades bestowed upon Mrs Skipworth could not have come at a more fitting time.

Children's Commissioner and Hawke's Bay pediatrician Russell Wills has just released an update on trends in child poverty and poverty-related illnesses.

He states there are large numbers of poor Maori and Pacific Island families coming into hospital with mostly children of pre-school age.

It is well known that historically Maori and Pacific Island communities are over-represented in many negative social statistics.

While this representation may appear to be ingrained, grassroots initiatives such as IronMaori are one of many community avenues capable of helping reverse the trend.

To some the scale of the problem may be disheartening.

But when one considers the skyrocketing popularity of IronMaori since its 2009 inception, one must surely be filled with a sense of optimism.