Toi Tangata is an agency promoting physical health and wellbeing in Māori communities. This is an inspiring example of how the Aotearoa Bike Challenge(external link) encouraged their own team out on their bikes.
Toi Tangata is an agency that enables whānau physical health and wellbeing, so biking is a natural part of their company. Danielle reports:
Through workforce development events, biking has been used to connect people to the knowledge in the environment. Bikes have also always been a prominent mainstay in many of our Kupu o te Wiki (Word of the Week) images which focus on promoting Te Reo Māori with a focus on health and wellbeing.
They’ve supported many events which get whānau onto bikes, including The Nugget, Coast to Coast, and The Dual.
The pro cycling environment has encouraged many staff to take up cycling in their personal time - last year 8 members of staff bought bikes to start cycling.
Close2017 was the first year that Toi Tangata signed up for the challenge as a team, and bikes were shared around to make sure everyone could get involved.
Although we are already a pretty active team and like to hold staff gatherings which have a physical focus, it was a great opportunity to get those who don’t usually bike to get out there and give it a go.
Supporting opportunities for our staff and more importantly the communities that we reach to have a safe environment (with lots of laughter) to get back on a bike is a key factor.
CloseDuring the Auckland Bike Challenge, their CEO rode every day despite having not ridden in years.
Team lunchtime rides at least twice a week ensured as many people as possible got on board. The enthusiasm was embraced throughout the company, with 13 people riding (76% of the organisation), 5 of which were new riders.
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Danielle Jones
When I look back a year ago, I never thought I’d be a ‘bike rider’. Now I can’t imagine living without one.
I started my biking journey in 2016 when my co-worker let me borrow their bike during the Auckland Bike Challenge. As part of Auckland Transport’s Bike To Work Day competition, I plugged a photo of me and my bike on Instagram to put myself into the draw to win a bike. A few days later and much to my surprise, I’d won! It was a nifty, bright-yellow fixie from LBNZ which you could see a mile away. It was at that point that I started to commute to and from work.
CloseAlthough my commute was less than a kilometre, it was still pretty scary riding on the road in Ponsonby. Most of the time I tried riding on the footpath but couldn’t really get anywhere fast dodging passersby.
To increase my confidence, I signed up for a free AT transport course to learn how to ride on the road. That half-day course was extremely helpful (…) and significantly changed how I biked. I became a lot more confident which eventually influenced my decision to get a faster bike - with gears this time!
CloseIn the past year, me and my mountain bike have completed three biking events in Rotorua, Waiwhetū and Waihi. My favourite was the two-day bike ride in Waiwhetū which we did as part of Toi Tangata’s Atua Matua project with 20 other bike-riders.
CloseAtua Matua is a project that provides the opportunity to enable whānau to engage in mātauranga (knowledge) and whakapapa (genealogy) of the environment through physical activity - in this case, biking, however it can also be on kayaks, walking, even skiing. What this means, is that we were participating in a biking trip not solely for the sake of health and wellbeing, but as an avenue for learning about the environment from a Māori worldview; increasing one’s health, wellbeing and fitness becomes an incidental outcome.
While learning about the land I was riding on and the plants specific to that area, I was able to experience some of the most physically challenging terrain I’d ever ridden on: road, dirt, rocks, sand, rivers, you name it. Approaching it from this way makes the experience of biking both a learning and physical experience.
CloseNowadays, I ride to work almost every day and to most appointments in and around the city. In regards to my wellbeing, I love the fact that biking means I get outside as well as an opportunity to get my body moving. I look at it like hitting two birds with one stone: it gets me from A to B, AND I get a workout out of it too.
When I look back a year ago, I never thought I’d be a ‘bike rider’. Now I can’t imagine living without one.
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The motive: Connecting to mātauranga (knowledge) in the environment
Bike month participation: 76%
New riders: 5
From beginner to biker: 1 year, Danielle Jones
