In 2023, our founder Rutu King was named one of Te Rau Ora's Top 100 Māori Leaders, a list recognising people carving new paths in Māori health and wellbeing across Aotearoa. Her profile on the site describes her as an aspiring mental health advocate and catalyst for positive change, known for public speaking, empowering others and leading with compassion.
It wasn't a single moment that earned the recognition. It was the two years before it.
Rutu relaunched Hope Is My Homeboy in 2022, on the ten year anniversary of losing her brother Te Kakahu Whero, and rebuilt it into something far bigger than the clothing tribute it started as in 2012. She led Check On Your Homies, the relaunch collection, dedicating it entirely to the I AM HOPE Foundation, it sold out within a week. She fronted a national feature in Stuff, then a profile by the Centre of Māori Suicide Prevention. She started delivering community workshops across the Nelson region that same year, and hasn't stopped since. By the time 2023 came around, that was the body of work sitting behind her name.
Te Rau Ora describes the kaupapa behind the list with a whakataukī:
Kāore te kūmara e kōrero mō tōna ake reka. The kūmara does not speak of its own sweetness.
It's a fitting way to frame it. This recognition wasn't chased. It came from people choosing to speak up about work they'd seen change something, for themselves, their whānau or their team. It's also, by Te Rau Ora's own words, an acknowledgement of mana that extends beyond one person to the whānau, hapū and iwi behind them. For Rutu, that reaches back through Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāi Tahu, Te Atiawa and Tūhoe, and it reaches back to Whero — the reason all of this exists in the first place.
"Being told about this didn't feel like a finish line," Rutu says. "It felt like being told, keep going, this is working. This one isn't just for me, it's for Whero, and for everyone who's ever told us a workshop or a hoodie or a conversation reached them at the right moment."
You are enough. You matter. Your story isn't over.
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