Jeremy Padgett

Jeremy started Children Of The Sea in 2021, a hauora-based kaupapa Maori with the purpose of raising awareness for men’s mental health and promoting safety and knowledge when in the hands of Ruku and Tangaroa.

“Our kaupapa hosts 25 tāne from all different rohe around Aotearoa. We reach out various Hauora Roopu including The Tane Matua movement, NZ medicine, Man up Programme and other Dive roopu offering this opportunity which really brings a diverse kete of knowledge from different iwi and creating a huge impact to our whakawhanaungatanga.

“During the planning stages of our kaupapa, we wananga fortnightly on the mainland which we prep, resource and fundraise for our trip. As this is a timely task we are only able to run our kaupapa every 3 months which gives us time to fundraise Koha and gather Kai for our trip. The cost of our trip to Kapiti Island Cost $3500 which covers our koha for accommodation, ferry across and Kai for our trip.

“Our kaupapa teaches te ao Maori , Manakitanga, whanaungatanga and Kotahitanga me ona tikanga. We have a wellbeing space which we run a hauora programme with our tane, enriching their capabilities as Pou with in their whanau. We also have a collective of knowledge in te Moananui a Kiwa which we share with our Tane teaching them the different safety and rescue technics when diving and the use of karakia and tikanga when diving into the realm of Tangaroa.”