The Thread
Weaving healing through community, culture & connection.
The Thread is an initiative by Big Tings, created under the Lalaga o le Vā Project, a movement dedicated to weaving culture, connection, and care across Aotearoa.
In 2025, Big Tings partnered with NZMA Health & Wellbeing students to co-design this kaupapa through the Community Connection Project. This collaboration helped shape the foundations of The Thread, empowering students to connect with local services, create resource booklets using the Vā I Moana framework, and co-design our first community wellness event.
Their mahi represents the heart of Lalaga o le Vā, learning, leading, and healing through connection. The Thread is more than an event series, it’s a collective effort to bring schools, services, and communities together through celebration, storytelling, and action.
Across 2026, we’ll host three kaupapa-driven community events, Reset Tings, Rise Tings, and Reflect Tings, each designed to uplift, reconnect, and empower our people.
You’re receiving this pack because your school, organisation, or service is part of this vision. Whether you support rangatahi, whānau, or the wider community, your mahi contributes to the wellbeing of our people, and we’d love for you to be part of the weave.
The Thread is about connection and connection grows when we share it.
Together, let’s create spaces where culture, hope, and healing flow freely.
Network Tings is a community connection event created for all the organisations, services, schools, and kaupapa working with rangatahi and whānau across South Auckland.
It’s a space where we come together to connect, reflect, and align our mahi so we can better support the whaiora we all work with. This isn’t a big public event, it’s a relational space for the people behind the scenes. The ones doing the heavy lifting in wellbeing, education, culture, and community support.
Hosted one month after each Thread event, Network Tings gives us a moment to:
reflect on the event,
share insights,
strengthen relationships, and
learn more about the wider Big Tings initiatives under the Lalaga o le Vā project.
It’s all about weaving the village: service providers, schools, cultural leaders, clinicians, youth workers, creatives, and community champions sitting together, sharing ideas, and building collaboration so our community receives the best support possible.
At Network Tings, we connect, ground, and grow, strengthening the relationships that hold our communities together.
Network Tings
It takes many hands to weave a mat strong enough to hold our people. Bring your strand, bring your story, the vā is calling.
Ready to be part of the weave?
We’d love to have you join us for The Thread 2026. Whether you’re a school, service, vendor, creative, performer, or community group, there is a place for you in this kaupapa.
Fill out the form below to register your interest.
Once you’ve submitted your details, our team will be in touch with next steps and full event information.
Share the weave.
If you know a school, organisation, or person who’d love to be involved, please pass this link on — connection grows when we share it.