From the rugby league field to community activator, to local politics. For Hilda Peters, it's always been about whānau.
"Our whānau are reaching out to us, they want to change and it's about time. If I can help in any way to make that change, anei ahau, here I am."
Former Māori All Stars, Kiwi Ferns, and New Zealand Warriors representative Hilda Peters has swapped her rugby league boots for local politics, putting her hat in the ring for the Manurewa Local Board.
Peters has been instrumental in Manurewa Marae's Covid-19 response and now will look to use all her experience for the betterment of the Manurewa community.
Peters comes from a rugby league dynasty that started with her father and trickled down to her siblings.
"I've got a whole whānau that play rugby league. My dad used to play rugby league for Manurewa, I think they were called Southern United back in the day, and then we went out to Papakura. I have three other sisters that I grew up playing rugby league along with my brother. He was a Junior Kiwi."
Giving back to whānau in a different field.
Living costs the local issue
She has been at the forefront of the Covid effort in Manurewa, leading the Covid rollout. Now she has turned her sights to creating widespread change in her community, via the Manurewa Local Board, and her Manurewa Action Team.
"Here at the marae, we have vaccinated over 60,000 whānau. So, coming through this marae and meeting whānau, talking to whānau, you then get a really good idea as to what struggles our whānau have been going through over the last two years."
Peters says the issues she will be campaigning on relate to whānau and the struggles that she has seen firsthand.
"It's living costs. It's whānau not being able to provide like they used to. It's kai. It's petrol. It's our day-to-day things that were always just something we did but, now, we are just struggling."
