Matariki: Meet Toko Manuel, helping young creatives thrive

Matariki is an important moment for the Māori community, marking the beginning of the Māori New Year and is signified by the Matariki cluster of stars reappearing in the night sky. In 2026, Matariki falls on 8 – 11 July, with a public holiday in Aotearoa (New Zealand) on Friday, 10 July.

Matariki is a time for:

• Remembrance, to honour those lost since the last rising of Matariki
• Celebrating the present and giving thanks to what we currently have
• Looking to the future and making plans for the New Year

This Matariki, our Westfield destinations across New Zealand will be celebrating with a variety of activities, including Poi making, an immersive star tunnel, face painting and more. As a time of reflection, connection and new beginnings, Matariki provides a meaningful opportunity for Westfield to bring communities together and celebrate the rich culture and traditions of Aotearoa. Visit your local centre’s website to find out what’s happening near you.

We spoke with Toko Manuel to find out what Matariki means to the Māuri community. Toko was a 2025 Westfield Local Heroes finalist and is the founder of Passion to Profession, a grass-roots mentorship program and community school, supporting young creatives with vocational and entrepreneurial pathways.

Can you tell us about Passion to Profession?

We started in 2015 after recognising a gap between creativity and opportunity. I thought, how do I turn something that people love doing into something that could probably feed their family in the long run? We try and find people’s passion and turn it into a sustainable career.

We’ve had so many artists come through our 10-week program and start up their own businesses. We’ve had record labels, T-Shirt printing and pressing, DJing and more.

The biggest thing though is changing people’s mindset. We're helping young people who have an idea in their head and giving them the tools, real-world skills and mentorship they need for a better future. As a business owner myself, I've got the understanding of what they need to learn, especially around business fundamentals such as GST and tax.

Why is Matariki important to your community?

10 years ago I didn't really see that many Matariki events out there, but now that it's in our communities, people are celebrating the artworks getting created around it and they are really supporting it.

For me, Matariki is the time for us to replenish. It's a time for us to just stop, slow down, reflect on what's actually happened over the past year, and replant those seeds of knowledge, what you’ve learned and gained.

You were recognised as a Westfield Local Hero in 2025. What does this mean for you personally?

It was very overwhelming for me to see somebody, or a company of this calibre, recognise me. It's mind blowing.

I want to make change in our community. Many kids that I was working with were dealing with complex backgrounds and involved in crime, and it's not their fault. I am growing our local community and our youngins, changing their mindset at a very young age. To get acknowledged for that lets me know that I'm on the right track.

How did the grant impact your organisation and community?

It was very pivotal for us in expanding our program. Some students wanted to learn skills that I didn't personally have much knowledge of, like graffiti classes. So having the grant to actually go and look for somebody to help those kids and teach them was a real game changer. Before then I paid for this whole program by myself.

Access to more tutors has allowed us to expand the Passion to Profession program into South Auckland Māngere/Manukau, East Auckland Panmure and Northshore Northcote and we’re in talks about other locations. I’d love to have this program all over New Zealand and even Australia.

Westfield continues to partner with program alumni to grow their impact. Learn more about the Westfield Local Heroes program and our 991 finalists and heroes from the past 8 years here.