There was no shortage of challenges.
An evolving health environment. Growing demand. Providers already doing the mahi to support whānau while navigating the same pressures and constraints.
For Toi Manawa Alliance Chief Executive Katarina Gordon (Ngāti Porou), the question wasn't how to build a bigger organisation.
It was whether the organisation was playing the role its communities needed it to play.
"The health sector is always changing," she says. "There's always going to be noise. Our challenge was to look beyond that and focus on the opportunity."
That opportunity wasn't about doing more.
It was about doing things differently.
"We didn't want to build ourselves. We wanted to build ourselves into a position that actually better enables the wider ecosystem to deliver services to whānau."
It was a shift in thinking that has shaped the organisation's evolution from the Eastern Bay Primary Health Alliance to Toi Manawa Alliance.
Rather than asking what it could deliver itself, the organisation stepped back to look across the wider health and wellbeing landscape.
"We took a bird's-eye view of our community, our services and the wider ecosystem," Katarina says. "Where are the gaps? How might we position ourselves to enable others to do what they're doing?"
The answer wasn't another programme. It was partnership.
"There's not one provider that is able to respond to every whānau need," she says. "Whānau deserve choice. Whānau deserve diversity."
By strengthening relationships across general practice, Hauora Māori providers, iwi, community organisations and mainstream services, Toi Manawa aims to help create a more connected journey of care for whānau.
Katarina is equally clear that Toi Manawa is an organisation for everyone.
"We're an organisation that doesn't just serve Māori. We serve the collective," she says.
"That includes Māori, iwi, hapū, general practice, mainstream providers and every community across our rohe. No matter who you are, we're working towards a health and wellbeing system that's more connected, easier to navigate and centred on the needs of people."
The organisation's new name reflects that direction.
Drawing on the legacy of Toi-te-Huatahi and the identity of Te Moana a Toi, Toi Manawa represents an organisation grounded in relationships, shaped by community and committed to improving hauora through partnership rather than working in isolation.
For Hakahaka Hona (Ngāti Awa), Pou Tikanga at Toi Manawa Alliance, the name reaches beyond the organisation itself.
"I think of ancestry, mastery, artistry, passion, unity, connection, optimal health and natural beauty," he says.
For Hakahaka, the kaupapa is about pursuing the hauora needs, not simply the health needs, of the people, as determined by the people.
It's a whakaaro that complements Katarina's vision.
One speaks of strengthening the system. The other reminds us why.
Katarina knows the work ahead won't always be easy. "We talk about mana motuhake and rangatiratanga," she says. "I'd like to think we can create that ourselves."
For her, the challenge is bringing people together around shared priorities, creating stronger partnerships and a collective voice for Te Moana a Toi.
Her hope isn't that Toi Manawa becomes bigger. It's that, by working together, Te Moana a Toi becomes stronger.
ENDS
