The #SmearYourMea bus are doing checks for cervical cancer Photo: RNZ / Emma Andrews
Hauora has been an important focus for Te Matatini with a zero tolerance for drinking, drugs, smoking, and vaping - but what else is being done at the event to encourage Māori to better look after themselves?
Kia Ora Hauora chief executive Cazna Luke said it was important to spread the word of health at Matatini.
"This is a premier event that is just amazing and it's just celebrating so many of our whānau here, we're really thrilled to be a stall holder."
Kia Ora Hauora is a national programme designed to get more Māori into the health workforce ranging from those fresh out of high school to tertiary graduates.
"We need more Māori doctors, nurses, physio, just everywhere in our health sector because it makes a difference. We want to see proportionate to the population."
Luke said 16 to 17 percent of the medical workforce was Māori, but when Kia Ora Hauora started in 2010, the percentage was just 2 to 4 percent.
Kia Ora Hauora Chief Executive Cazna Luke wants to see more Māori in the health care sector Photo: RNZ / Emma Andrews
"There's still a way to go. We are not at 'proportionate to our population' and that should be our minimum."
"We just need those sort of health careers available, pathways, and scaffolding support into making it a reality."
According to Health NZ data, Māori and Pacific peoples tend to have higher cancer death rates than non-Māori.
The former Te Pāti Māori co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell arrived in Taranaki on his bike with the Ride for Talei group who rode from Auckland. Ride for Talei was named after the late haka performer Talei Morrison who died in 2018 after a battle with cervical cancer.
Flavell was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in 2023 and advocates for his goal to be achieved.
"To get everybody to be tested for testicle and cervical cancer, then if that's the case then we would've achieved our job and that's what it's been about and acknowledgement is hugely important, doing something about it is another."
Dene Ainsworth has his stall parked at the Marketplace at the Bowl of Brooklands to share the same message.
"Just get your head out of the sand, don't be staunch, get checked."
Te Whānau-a-Apanui perform at Matatini. Photo: Supplied / Te Matatini
In the past, testicular cancer exams used to be "invasive" which caused men to be reluctant about getting tested.
"However, technology advances rapidly these days and the blood test that we can get now is just as good. In fact, it's probably as accurate, if not more accurate," Ainsworth said.
He urges men, especially Māori men to get the simple blood test.
"Everything in hauora we don't figure well on the statistics."
"Prostate cancer is one of the largest killers of males. It's probably the largest now, but a Māori man who's diagnosed with prostate cancer is one-and-a-half to two times more likely to die than non-Māori."
The Taranaki local was diagnosed with prostate cancer and believes far too many men are dying from it, and with Matatini on his back doorstep he hopes more people take the opportunity to swing by.
"Maximum exposure to a maximum amount of people is what we're looking for."
The health and wellbeing area of the Marketplace at Te Matatini Photo: RNZ / Emma Andrews
This Matatini competition has also encouraged teams to get haka fit. For the last 12 months, Leanne Matuku has helped her Taranaki-local 'puraz' whānau to become healthier versions of themselves.
After Nga Purapura o Te Taihauāuru qualified for Te Matatini, they turned to their 'Aunty Lee' for health and fitness advice.
Matuku had created a nutrition and fitness plan for the rōpū which they've stuck to.
"[Te Matatini] is the culmination of all their mahi. It's pretty exciting... I feel like a mother hen," Matuku said.
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