Gisborne Muay Thai teen to fly New Zealand flag solo at Olympics

Gisborne martial artist Ishtar Mackey-Huriwai (centre) at the Rangataua o Aotearoa training rooms with mother Melissa Mackey-Huriwai (left) and grandfather Taka Mackey. Ishtar Mackey-Huriwai will represent her country at the Paris Olympics in the demonstration sport of Muay Thai, joining over 1000 fighters from 24 nations. Photo / Paul Rickard

Tairawhiti martial arts athlete Ishtar Mackey-Huriwai is following a well-trodden family path, and laying a few pavers of her own.

At 17, she will be New Zealand’s only representative in the demonstration sport of Muay Thai at the Paris Olympics.

She is the daughter of Mike Huriwai and Melissa Mackey-Huriwai, and is coached by her mother. When she began her martial arts journey – she had her first competitive fight when she was 7 – Melissa Mackey-Huriwai’s father Taka Mackey was her coach.

Mackey was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2020 for services to martial arts and Māori. He founded Gisborne’s Rangataua o Aotearoa martial arts club in 1977.

The name, often shortened to RoA, means “a group of warriors from New Zealand”. It is instructed in te reo Māori and incorporates kickboxing and Muay Thai. Kickboxing differs from Muay Thai in that it forbids the use of elbows. Practitioners of Muay Thai, or Thai kickboxing, use their fists, elbows, shins and knees.

Whanganui-based John Tahu, now deceased, founded the first RoA club in Whanganui in 1976. His first students were brothers John and Phillip Marshall, who went on to run the Wellington club, and Taka Mackey.

These days, his daughter Melissa does most of the training and instructing at the Gisborne club, but Taka Mackey maintains a keen interest in developments.

Ishtar Mackey-Huriwai, of Ngāti Porou, found out about her selection as New Zealand’s Muay Thai representative last weekend. She didn’t know she was in the running and was “surprised and excited” about being part of the Olympics, albeit in a demonstration sport.

She has been to Thailand – the home of Muay Thai – many times, but never to France.

Mackey-Huriwai is studying sports science part-time and online with Te Wananga o Raukawa in Ōtaki. She gained her diploma last year and, all going well, should have her degree at the end of next year.

But her focus is her martial art. Her aim is to train fulltime as a professional Muay Thai fighter and to compete again at the Olympic Games, when Muay Thai is included as an official Olympic sport.

Mackey-Huriwai spent last year recovering from surgery to her left shoulder and regaining fitness. She’d had trouble with the shoulder and was managing the injury heading into a bout. A left hook she threw proved too much for it, though, and the shoulder popped out.

The shoulder has been well tested since she recovered from surgery and she has fought adult opponents twice this year. Two weeks after her return from Paris, she will compete in the IFMA (International Federation of Muaythai Associations) Youth World Championships in Bangkok, Thailand.

Mackey-Huriwai’s selection as New Zealand’s representative for the demonstration phase of the sport’s induction into the Olympic fold seems like a natural progression. Since she was 9, she has taken part in IFMA world tournaments, winning medals at many of them. She has also taken up invitations to fight for gyms in Thailand.

In Paris, over 1000 Muay Thai boxers from 24 countries across five continents will take part in the sport’s demonstration debut, which will run from August 4 to 9.

Mackey-Huriwai will fight in the women’s Under-23, Under-60kg division. Her opponent is from the United Arab Emirates and was a national champion last year. As Muay Thai is a demonstration sport, the athletes will each fight only once, rather than take part in an elimination contest.

No matter. Mackey-Huriwai is training the way she normally does – twice a day, every day, all year round.