Strong Voices

After years of disciplined training and with the support of an inclusive dojo, Downright Dragons Jevon and Dan have earned their karate black belts.

Joel Forman is a dance teacher with Jolt Dance in Ōtautahi. He presents Jolt Dance on IHC Media, Monday mornings at 11am.

Eighteen-year-old Xervier Doney made waves – literally and figuratively – when he won two world titles at the 2025 Para Sailing International Championships in Sydney in February of this year.

Taimahi Trust has come a long way from a coffee cart with four guys on the side of the road to a group of micro-enterprises providing great food and eco-products to Whangārei and beyond.

It’s hard to be patient when there’s a lot of talk about improving lives for people with intellectual disabilities, but the better times still feel out of reach.

On a summer day in January, Caitlin Fleming built a large sandcastle on the beach in the remote Te Kainga Bay in Queen Charlotte Sound. She sat in it, looked out across the sea and told a story – “it’s about a beautiful Queen Elizabeth”.

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This summer Trudy and Paul Masters are expecting their first banana harvest from their rural block near Whangārei. But there is more at stake for the couple than wanting to join Northland’s recent enthusiasm for growing the fruit.

The small Rangitīkei town of Hunterville doesn’t have a lot on offer for a young man at weekends. So it’s understandable if Jeremy Hill-Hayer decides to stay on in Palmerston North to go to a disco rather than travel home to see his parents.

Michael Holdsworth was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, making him the first person with Down syndrome to receive this honour.

Young Wellington woman Katrina Sneath has found work at a unique hotel in the New South Wales Blue Mountains.