Blog home / Australian Walking Holidays proudly supports Native Nations 2026 Indigenous Youth Exchange
Australian Walking Holidays proudly supports Native Nations 2026 Indigenous Youth Exchange
Australian Walking Holidays is proud to be delivering the Northern Territory leg of Native Nations 2026, an Indigenous-led youth leadership programme connecting Aboriginal rangatahi (young people) from Central Australia with Māori youth from Aotearoa New Zealand. This is the fourth Native Nations exchange and AWH's first year on board as delivery partner for the Central Australia leg.
Eight Aboriginal youth aged 18 to 21 from Mparntwe (Alice Springs) will travel to Aotearoa from 1 to 11 August 2026, joined there by ten Māori rangatahi. The same Central Australian group, plus two additional young people who are not travelling to New Zealand, will then welcome the Aotearoa rōpū (group) to Central Australia from 20 to 30 August 2026 for the second half of the exchange.
What is Native Nations?
Native Nations is an Indigenous-led youth leadership exchange founded by Nadine "Nades" Toe Toe, Director of Kohutapu Lodge & Tribal Tours and a director of Native Nations United. The programme uses tourism as a vehicle for cultural connection, healing, identity, leadership and community change, bringing together Indigenous young people from remote and regional communities with Indigenous tourism operators, elders and knowledge holders across nations. Past exchanges have connected rangatahi from Victoria, Queensland, British Columbia and Vanuatu, alongside Aotearoa and Central Australia.
As Nades explains it, the programme goes well beyond a typical corporate social responsibility gesture: "It's much harder to plant a seed and change someone's life, that's what this kaupapa is about." She adds that the impact reaches far beyond the participants themselves: "This programme is powerful. It completely transforms not just the lives of these kids but of their families, their extended families and their friends and broader community."
The Aotearoa leg: 1 to 11 August 2026
Titled Ngā Ara Tūpuna, Ancestral Pathways, the New Zealand leg takes the group from Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) through Waitomo, Rotorua, Tarawera, Murupara, Whirinaki, Ōhiwa, Tōrere, Whakatāne, Maketū, Papamoa and Tauranga Moana. Highlights include the All Blacks Experience in Auckland, the glowworm caves at Waitomo, geothermal healing waters and Te Puia in Rotorua, a pōwhiri and hāngī at Rangitāhi Marae, forest regeneration learning at Minginui Nursery and Whirinaki Forest, marae stays at Tōrere, waka paddling and star navigation at Whakatāne, and a final celebration at Papamoa before the group returns to Auckland.
As the participant guide puts it, this is an Indigenous Youth Leadership Programme and cultural exchange, not a holiday: "a journey of learning, healing, discipline, laughter, challenge, responsibility and connection."
The Central Australia leg: 20 to 30 August 2026
The Central Australia leg, presented by Native Nations United and Australian Walking Holidays, is an 11-day Indigenous-led leadership and cultural immersion programme across Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Tjoritja (West MacDonnell Ranges) and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.
The programme opens with a Welcome to Country at the Akeyulerre Healing Centre, delivered by an Arrernte Elder, and includes a Caterpillar Dreaming walk at Jessie's Gap, a traditional kangaroo tail cook-up at Emily Gap, and cultural and creative workshops at Olive Pink Botanic Garden with Rayleen Brown of Kungkas Can Cook and artist William Palmer. The group then travels into Tjoritja for three nights of bush camping near Mt Sonder, taking in Serpentine Gorge (Ulpma), the Ochre Pits, Ormiston Pound and Yulpulpa (Glen Helen Gorge), before a pre-dawn ascent of Rwetyepme (Mount Sonder) to watch the sunrise from the 1,380-metre summit.
From there the rōpū travels to Yulara on Anangu Country for sunrise over Uluru, the Uluru Base Walk, a Didgeridoo Workshop and Bush Yarns with Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia, the Valley of the Winds walk at Kata Tjuta, and Wintjiri Wiru, an immersive drone, laser and projection storytelling experience bringing the ancestral Mala story to life beneath the desert night sky. The exchange closes with a farewell celebration back in Alice Springs.
Rayleen Brown has also played a key role in the cultural immersion and recruitment of young people for the Northern Territory leg of the programme.
Meet some of the rangatahi
The rōpū travelling from Aotearoa includes young leaders already making an impact in their communities. Kierra Mills (Ngāti Manawa, Tūhoe) hopes to study Tourism and Hospitality and one day become a flight attendant. Leona Pouwhare-Adams (Ngāti Manawa), Head Girl of Murupara Area School, dreams of becoming an Indigenous chef. Te Atapō Iraia-Hawkins (Ngāti Whare) currently works with the Department of Conservation on biodiversity monitoring and freshwater restoration. Manawapōhatu McGarvey-Borrell and Te Tokatumoana McGarvey are both accomplished performers at Te Pā Tū and Mitai, studying Māori Studies and building toward careers teaching mātauranga Māori.
From Central Australia, the group includes Sharni, a Central Eastern Arrernte woman from Alice Springs with a passion for art, music and psychology; Alesha, who works in the Community Development Unit at the Central Land Council; Ella, a Western Arrernte woman from Ntaria (Hermannsburg); and Addy, who works at Bunnings and is looking forward to reconnecting with his Ngāpuhi whakapapa on the Aotearoa leg.
Thank you to our sponsors
Native Nations 2026 is fully funded, with no cost to participants, thanks to the generous support of our sponsors and partners:
Their support is helping to invest in the future of Indigenous leadership and make this once-in-a-lifetime experience possible for every participant.
What's next
We'll be following the rōpū throughout August as they move between Aotearoa and Central Australia, and we'll bring you a full wrap-up once the Native Nations 2026 exchange is complete, including reflections from the rangatahi themselves and highlights from both legs of the journey.
Find out more about Native Nations United and the wider Native Nations kaupapa at nativenationsunited.com.