When Atawhai Heta's eldest boy "accidentally" signed himself up for Saturday netball five years ago, she had no idea it would change the course of her whānau's life.
"He thought it was a day off school to go play sport," she laughs. "Then he found out he had a game on Saturday and he'd already put his hand up. So I said, you can't let the team down now. Let's just go and give it a go."
The team didn't have an umpire and at Mangōnui Netball Centre, that falls on the parents. So Atawhai stepped in. One season of whistling led to coaching, then the junior committee, then the executive, and today she's the Centre's Facilities Manager, Child Safeguarding Representative, a junior coach, and a driving force behind growing the junior space at the Far North Phoenix Netball Club.
It's a list that would make most people tired just reading it. For Atawhai, it's simple.
"My passion lies with people. It lies with our families," she says. "It's about creating opportunities and removing barriers, so everyone's kids get a chance to give it a go, to grow, to develop, to learn."
Putting down roots
Atawhai grew up in Auckland and moved north to Kaitāia about ten years ago. In a place where everyone knows everyone and most have grown up together, earning your place takes time.
"It's always the same solid auntie, the same solid mum, the same solid whānau doing the mahi," she says. "So for me it was just turning up to show I'm here for the long haul, for the benefit of my whānau."
She's done all of it with her babies alongside her; her three youngest are four, two, and eight months old. Rather than wait on the sidelines, she found a space at the Centre where she could keep her tamariki close and still keep the game rolling. "There were lots of hands to help me with my babies," she says. "They became my extended family."
More than a game
She talks about the Far North with fierce pride and a clear eyed view of the story other people tell about it.
"Northland is sort of the underdog," she says. "But when I look at what Northland produces, it's incredible. And it starts from a Saturday netball, from those tournaments at 13, 14, 15 years old. Then it leads into what we see on TV, into people leading in all sorts of spaces."
For her, netball is a waka, a vehicle to carry people somewhere bigger. As a parenting facilitator by trade, she's used the game to connect with whānau and build them up, working alongside Sport Northland on parenting and "good sports" kaupapa.
"It's more than the on court game. It's the life skills it puts into our young people. It builds character, it builds leadership," she says. "Up here our culture is very strong in Te Ao Māori, so to have that in the netball community is beautiful. It's not just our tinana, it's our total selves we bring to it."
The mahi behind the scenes
As Facilities Manager, Atawhai has built systems for the hire, cleaning and upkeep of the Centre. On game day she runs Junior Control, keeping Saturday netball on schedule and sorting issues calmly as they come. And as Child Safeguarding Representative, she's turned a role that could be box ticking into something living which is keeping the Centre safe for its tamariki.
Creole Wallace (President, Mangōnui Netball Centre and nominator) says, "Atawhai is the kind of person who doesn't just see what needs doing, she steps up and makes it happen, quietly and well beyond what anyone expects,".
"What sets her apart isn't the number of roles she holds, it's the heart and integrity she brings to every one of them. She puts others before herself, every time. She's an invaluable part of our Centre and a role model for the rest of us."
"It takes an awesome team"
Ask Atawhai about her impact and she turns the spotlight onto everyone else. The volunteers who open up at 6am to get the warmers going, the senior committee members who scoop up her tamariki so she can keep game day running, and her nominator and fellow volunteer Creole Wallace.
"It takes an awesome team to bring these ideas to life," she says. "We don't do it all. I've still got emails I haven't sent! But we do the absolute most we can. And that makes a difference."
That selflessness shows up in the small moments too. Offered a ticket to a marquee game, Atawhai handed it to her teenagers and stayed home to run the canteen and Junior Control. "My volunteers have to come first," she says. "I just love using what we have to make an opportunity for others."
Her message to anyone on the fence
For anyone thinking about putting their hand up but worried they'd be too much, Atawhai has a kaupapa she lives by.
"Sometimes we think we're too much. But actually, you're not too much. Other people aren't enough," she says. "You're the right amount of what's needed. We can be our own worst critics and hold ourselves back. So raise that bar. Go for it. Give it a go."
She adds: "Volunteering isn't separate from who you are at home or in your family. It's a part of you through and through. So let that part of you shine because everyone else will benefit from it."
Atawhai is humble about the recognition, but she'll happily wear it for one reason.
"What I love being recognised is our community. Mangōnui’s name is up there, and we're showing we're doing it. We're pulling our weight. We're moving mountains."
Atawhai Heta is our July Volunteer of the Month. A huge mihi to our partners at PIC Insurance Brokers, whose support of the Volunteer of the Month programme helps us celebrate the people who hold our centres together.
