Lifespan Rites

We Lifespan Rites whānau are excited to announce that our website is now live!

You can find information about our programmes and upcoming events, more about who we are, plus some awesome photos. We'd love you to have a look and let us know what you think!

Upcoming events:
- First Fires 3rd-4th October, Manawatū
- Moon Spiral 9-11th October, Manawatū

Lifespan Rites Rites of Passage Programs for Individuals and Families About Lifespan Rites Lifespan Rites aims to bring important Rites of Passage work to lower North Island communities, from Taranaki, through to Manawatū and Ōtaki regions. We offer Rites of Passage, Initiations and Ceremonies which are designed...

Are you joining us?

🌙 SAVE THE DATES 🌙

MOON SPIRAL 2026

A Mother & Daughter Mini Rite of Passage Retreat

For girls aged 8–11 and the women walking beside them.

This is an invitation to slow down, reconnect, create, play, and honour the sacred bond between daughters and the women raising them.

A space where the girls are reminded of their magic- and how this magic will remain with them as they journey through their changing lives and into womanhood.

A space where daughters discover that their mothers are more than just "Mum"- they are women with their own stories, dreams, wisdom, and magic to share also.

And a space where the women are invited to witness their daughters with fresh eyes, recognising the remarkable young women they are becoming.

Connection. Ceremony. Celebration. Belonging.

✨ 9–11 October 2026
📍 Manawatū

If this stirs something in your heart, we'd love to have you join us!

Register your interest now by messaging the page and be amongst the first to secure your place.

Last year's Moon Spiral sold out!

Tag someone you'd love to share this journey with. 💙

I am yet to have found the words to express the depths of what transpired at our very first Moon Weavers gathering at Waihōanga Riverside Lodge and Retreat but I am being called to try.

I am beyond honoured to be one of the Lifespan Rites women whom worked together to create and deliver this programme for our communities. Birthing Moonweavers was an initiaion all of its own 🌹

2 weeks later and I am still very much integrating.

Some experiences cannot be explained. They can only be lived.

What I know is this...

We crossed the threshold- each and every one of us. And what a threshold it was!

A portal opened, and the land itself gathered us into its embrace. It held each of the 25 wāhine as we descended into our own unique initiations. Each woman was invited to meet herself at the very edge of what was ready to be seen, grieved, surrendered, reclaimed, remembered, and just as importantly- celebrated the heck out of.

The depths we journeyed were so deeply transformational- not only for those women who came, but for us as facilitators too. We were all woven into the same sacred tapestry, but each with our own initiation.

The portal has now closed, but the red thread that was spun between us shall continue to weave its magic.

Invisible to the eye, yet unmistakably alive.

It will continue to move through our lives as we each walk our own path- with greater authority, deeper sovereignty, fuller hearts, and a more embodied remembrance of who we truly are.

May we honour what was laid down.
May we tend what was reclaimed.
May we trust fully the woman we have remembered ourselves to be.

To every wāhine who answered the call- Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I honour you in your entirety. And I freaking love you!

Thank you for your courage. For your vulnerability. For your fierce honesty. For your laughter. For your tears. For your dance. For your epic wolf howls. For your witnessing. For your willingness to remember and claim yourself as the heroine in your own story. For allowing yourself to be seen, felt, and known by the women that gathered with us.

In the end, Moon Weavers was never ever going to be simply a retreat 😆 (sorry not sorry if you had that impression). Its a rites of passage. A homecoming to an ancient remembrance of what it means to be woman- and a moment marked in time for the journey that is yours alone.

A remembering that we belong- to ourselves, to one another in sisterhood, to the land, to the seasons and cycles and to the timeless thread that has always been weaving us home.

With each of you present, I faced my own fears. And I have since found a strength within myself that has been reawakened and is currently tingling with aliveness from deep within my bones. It's powerful asf and has me curious as to where it will lead me....

I also was reminded what it was like to be held so deeply with love by the sisterhood. So much love! So much trust. So much support of and for each other. So many hugs!

❤️ I needed that ❤️

❤️ And I know a lot of you wāhine did too ❤️

Thank you for trusting the process

May we continue to remember.
May we continue to weave.
May we continue to anchor into our own original brilliance that is ours by rite of birth.

🌙 ✨️Yes and more please ✨️🌙

Much love and gratitude to each of the women that answered the call; To the amazing team of 11 facilitators that held such a transformative space; For the extended families and the Lifespan Rites wider community that made (and continue to make) it possible for this work to exist for the communities in which we serve; For the Kaitiaki of the healing land on which we gathered.

It is such important mahi and wouldnt be able to continue without the collective effort. On behalf of the growing Lifespan Rites team, once again- we mihi to you. Thank you! Thank you. Thank you!

Aroha nui
Tara x

✨ One week until our glorious wāhine (yes, you!) gather on the land at Waihōanga Lodge for Moon Weavers 🌙

The weaving of your next chapter began the moment you said yes.

Yes to reclaiming yourself as the main character of your own life.

Yes to stepping away from the noise and demands of everyday living.

Yes to reconnecting with the woman beneath it all.

Three days of connection, ceremony, learning, initiation, and deep remembering awaits.

The land is ready to hold you. The awa will flow alongside us. The circle is calling. The fire awaits.

And behind the scenes, we are lovingly preparing for your arrival, weaving together every detail with care and intention.

Just one week to go, wāhine mā. 💙✨
We can't wait to welcome you home to the circle 🌙🔥💫

The stage is set for going into circle: dads and sons and a big support crew.

Regular gigs in Taranaki and Horowhenua supporting First Fires, our overnight event: full of mystery, connection, a sense of belonging, celebrating boyhood and manhood.

✨️ INA ✨️

Ina comes carrying a kete rich with Rites of Passage experiences. For over a decade she has been deepening her knowledge, understanding, and lived experience within this realm.

As her path has unfolded, so too has her desire to hold space for other women to experience the transformative depth this work can offer.

With a quiet wisdom far beyond her years, Ina brings a grounding, gentle, and creatively fresh presence into every space she weaves within.

She is very much looking forward to weaving with you at our upcoming Women's gathering next month