Te Mauri o te Makawe

Nuku te manaaki, nuku te manaaki, ka ora ai te iwi. With your support and my support, our community will thrive.

My name is Iesha Te-Iho. I am a qualified barber, creative, and proud Waiuku local. My journey here was not a straight line — but every challenge sharpened my purpose and showed me that barbering could be more than a trade. It could be a doorway to healing.

From that understanding, Te Mauri o te Makawe: The Koha Manawa was born.

This kaupapa delivers professional grooming and braiding through a mobile service, reaching people and places often overlooked — hospices, spinal units, rehabilitation centres, and rural communities where transport and access are barriers. But this work is about far more than hair.

Through whakahoki te tapu, hair is treated with care and respectfully returned to Papatūānuku using traditional tikanga — uku (clay), harakeke (flax), and korowai — protecting the mana of our whānau. Alongside this, kōrero is shared and recorded, preserving the voices, stories, and heartbeat of the community.

This kaupapa began with one chair and one set of tools, but the vision is a Waka Wānanga — a collective of skilled creatives travelling across Aotearoa and beyond, delivering workshops, teaching tikanga, uplifting hauora, and restoring identity through creativity.

At its heart, this is about legacy. About building something that lasts — not just 100 years, but for generations — by caring for people, culture, and community, together.