13 Jan Johnnie Freeland

Johnnie ( Te Waiohua, Waikato, Ngai Tuhoe) brings together more than 25 years of experience in guiding and navigating a range of Māori community and public sector organisations in achieving better outcomes with Māori. He also brings 23 years experience in coaching a range of team sports.

Johnnie has a background in playing and coaching touch football, rugby league, multisport and waka. He has played for Auckland in touch football, and coached touch football at both provincial and international level and currently coaches waka ama.

He and his wife, Kerrie, both share a passion for enabling whānau well-being through connecting/engaging with Ngā Taiao, and using Māori knowledge systems of Maramataka and Hekenga Waka.

In 2019, they completed together He Waka Hiranga Masters of Applied Indigenous Knowledge through Te Wananga o Aotearoa drawn from their shared model of practice Te Whai Oranga.