Welcome to Ngākau - literally a labour of love. To start from the beginning is to go back to 2002 when a personal tragedy resulted in the establishment of our heart and soul What Ever it Takes Home Based Rehabilitaiton and Support Services. As part of that journey to try and support a loved one who had become significantly disabled as a result of an accident I tried to find a model of care that would support us to take our family member home to live in the community, despite the complexity and difficulties required to do that. There was nothing out there that resonated with us so we created our own practise model and we called it Ngākau Purotu - a Beautiful Heart. It is Kaupapa Māori in its essence and embraces all those principles that are important to us and rich in Aroha, Whānau, Manaaki, Awhi and Ngākau.
Its been over 20 years of helping to care for other people and so I decided it was time to do something for myself. I have always loved fashion and beautiful clothes however as time went by and I became increasingly busy it became harder and harder to find the time to put energy and thought into dressing up while most importantly being comfortable. I love tracksuits and made the decision to create a line of Luxe Tracksuits that can be worn in the boardroom, at the office and into the evening - effortless but classy and beautiful. It made sense to me that this endeavour would also be an acknowledgement of where I have come from and a continuation of where I am going to and so Ngākau has come out of this.
It is a reflection of how we try and apply our practise Ngākau Purotu to our everyday lives and in particular how we care for each other and ourselves.