Mana Moana Football Collective: Leading With Mana, Connected Through Culture, and Playing With Confidence
Pasifika Girls Football Leadership Programme
Across Aotearoa, more girls are stepping onto football fields than ever before. But for many Pasifika girls, staying in the game has not always felt easy.
Too often, our girls are navigating spaces where they don’t fully see themselves reflected. Many are the only Pasifika girl in their team environment. Some leave the game during key transition years before they’ve had the chance to discover what is possible, not because they lack talent, but because the systems and environments around them don’t always feel culturally grounded, connected, or safe to belong in.
Mana Moana Football Collective was created in response to that reality.
Led by Football Fern Malia Steinmetz in partnership with Pasifika Sisters in Sport and Northern Region Football, Mana Moana is a Pasifika girls football leadership programme designed to strengthen belonging, confidence, leadership, and connection for Pasifika girls in football across Auckland.
But more than that, this programme is about creating spaces where our girls feel seen, valued, heard, and proud of who they are.
More Than Football
Mana Moana is ultimately about people.
It is about connection, identity, representation, and confidence.
It is about creating spaces where Pasifika girls can lead with mana, stay connected through culture, and play with confidence.
Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more of the stories, voices, and journeys behind the programme — including reflections from Pasifika women in football, whānau experiences, participant stories, and moments from the collective itself.
Because our girls deserve to be visible.
Their stories deserve to be heard.
And their presence in football matters.
Applications for the Mana Moana Football Collective are now open.
If you know a Pasifika girl aged 14–17 currently involved in football who would benefit from this space, we encourage you to apply or share this opportunity with your community. Applications close on the 1st of June 2026.
Why Mana Moana Matters
In 2024, 423 Pasifika girls were registered in junior football across New Zealand. By youth level, that number dropped to just 161.
Behind those statistics are real stories.
Stories of girls feeling isolated.
Stories of not seeing role models who look like them.
Stories of navigating barriers around access, cost, confidence, culture, and belonging.
At Pasifika Sisters in Sport, we know that participation alone is not enough. Our girls deserve environments where they can thrive, not just perform.
That is the heart behind Mana Moana.
The programme has been intentionally designed to centre Pacific ways of relating, connecting, caring, and leading. Through talanoa, mentorship, leadership workshops, storytelling, and collective connection, participants will be encouraged to use their voices, strengthen confidence, build relationships across clubs and communities, and explore what leadership can look like both on and off the field.
Because leadership is not only positional.
Sometimes leadership looks like confidence.
Sometimes leadership looks like staying.
Sometimes leadership looks like helping another girl feel less alone.
A Pacific-Led Approach
Mana Moana is grounded in Pacific-led co-design and talanoa.
The programme has been shaped through conversations with Pasifika women in football, players, whānau, community leaders, and wider sport stakeholders. This approach acknowledges that our communities already carry deep knowledge, wisdom, and lived experience around what helps young people feel connected and supported.
The goal is not simply to increase numbers in football but to create environments where Pasifika girls:
Feel like they belong,
Feel culturally affirmed,
Build meaningful peer connections,
Remain engaged in the game long term.
As Malia Steinmetz shares:
“Football opened doors in my life I couldn’t have imagined, but it hasn’t always been a space I have felt I authentically belonged in until later in my life. I want to change this for future generations of Pasifika girls to help them feel proud of who they are, to be seen, and to know their voices matter in shaping the future of our game.”
