Rachel Taulelei (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Koata) is the CEO of Kono, a whānau-owned food and beverage company that boasts horticulture, seafood and of course, award-winning wine. Guided by Te Pae Tawhiti, a 500 year plan for success, Rachel is at the helm of a unique business model with kaitiakitanga at its core. With a career that has spanned law, international trade and enterprise, business and, governance, you can understand why she is highly sought after in roles like th...
Oct 13, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Hiria Cameron and Kat Poi are sisters. Of Tainui, Te Arawa and Tongan whakapapa, the pair both work in racial equity education, building people’s skill, capacity and knowledge to engage, sustain and deepen conversation about race. Their mahi contributes to humanity achieving liberation and equity, while also empowering people to be healthy and, to thrive in their identities. They do this through one courageous conversation at a time. In this episode we talk about black lives and white skin. We t...
Oct 06, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Donna Kerridge (Ngāti Tahinga, Ngāti Mahuta) is a tohunga of Rongoā Māori, although she doesn’t describe herself as that. The humble practitioner, tutor and advocate is passionate about Indigenous practices that focus on healing and restoring our people and, our whenua. Rongoā is a practice she learnt from childhood, growing up in a whānau that would seek their medicine from the bush, and from each other. In this episode we talk about orangatanga and all that entails. We discuss the Tohunga Supp...
Sep 28, 2020•54 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Kristin Ross (Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Tara) is an entrepreneur, a producer and a creative. If you have tamariki, you will likely know her best as the co-founder and co-creator (with her husband Hōhepa) of the first Māori speaking dolls, and associated cartoon, Pipi Mā. Kristin and her husband produce Māori language content for digital and television broadcast, and while te reo Māori is now the primary language in their home, it wasn’t something she grew up with. In this episode we talk about being una...
Sep 22, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Kiriwaitingi Rei (Te Arawa, Ngāti Ama ki Rangitaiki, Ngāti Toa Rangatira) has worked in governance for almost 10 years. Her mahi has seen her practice as a solicitor and working for a post settlement iwi investment company before becoming the Chief Executive of Maori Investments. She recently became the an independent director for the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union, the first wahine to be appointed to the board in its 108 year history. In this episode we talk about smashing stereotypes on the roles o...
Sep 14, 2020•50 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Angela Swann-Cronin (Ngāti Porou, Rongowhakaata) is the first, and still the only, wahine Māori to become a pilot in the Royal NZ Airforce. A title she has held since 1999. Her career has gone from working in the military, to becoming a pilot with a regional commercial carrier, celebrating a few seaplane and skydive flying experiences in between. The māmā of two who has whakapapa to the East Coast, was born and raised in Rotorua, and although she spent much of her life travelling the world, she ...
Sep 06, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Terangi Roimata Kutia-Tataurangi (Ngāti Konohi, Te Aitanga a Hauiti) is the only nail technician in the world that specialises in Māori nail art. She has coined the term Toimaikuku for her unique style that blends new beauty techniques with Indigenous design, offering both a nail salon experience and retail nail wraps. Born and raised in Te Tairāwhiti, the māmā of two is a graduate of Toihoukura, and is challenging the norms of Indigenous art practice. In this episode we talk about business, bea...
Aug 31, 2020•42 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Dr Diana Kopua (Ngāti Porou) is a psychiatrist that is changing the system by preferencing Indigenous approaches to orangatanga. As the developer of Mahi a Atua, she uses Māori creation stories and pūrākau to transform mental health frameworks, providing an affirmation of our amazing genealogy and validation for our resilience. Dr Di is teaching communities of practice an alternative to the Western model, using a culturally sensitive new therapy to address mental distress and suffering amongst M...
Aug 25, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Tina Ngata (Ngāti Porou) has spent her life showing up for justice. Working in advocacy for Indigenous peoples and Papatūānuku, her passion for justice led her to become an active researcher, mahi that works in research while also committing to being an active part of the solution. She believes that in order to achieve lasting social and environmental justice, we must first start with decolonisation and dismantling the doctrine of discovery. In this episode we talk about imperialism in Aotearoa,...
Aug 18, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Honey (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Haua, Waikato-Tainui) is a sporting icon. The current captain of the Kiwi Ferns is a dual-code sportswoman with a career that has spanned 18 years and counting. The semi-professional athlete is also a disability sports adviser and sports commentator, smashing stereotypes across the sector. Born and raised in Putāruru, Honey invites us back to her whānau homestead to share her story. From her childhood days playing every sport the rural town had on offer, to raising he...
Aug 11, 2020•51 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Courtney (Tainui, Ngāti Koroki Kahukura) is a jeweller, artist and a lapidist - someone who cuts and shapes precious stones. Through her business - Courtney Marama , she designs bespoke jewellery, handcrafted in precious metals and set with gemstones from Aotearoa mainly working with Pounamu. Her unique approach to Pounamu, marries tradition with innovative design, shaping delicate pieces not commonly made from this taonga. In this episode, we talk about her upbringing in Cambridge, her sustaina...
Aug 04, 2020•46 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Kera Sherwood-O’Regan (Kāi Tahu) is a wahine who lives with Fibromyalgia. She started the organisation Fibromyalgia Aotearoa NZ, to help others living with the condition. Alongside this mahi, she also runs Activate, a social enterprise creative agency with a focus on bringing voice to social and environmental kaupapa. Since age 16, Kera has advocated for Indigenous rights. She is a staunch climate activist and has represented Indigenous Aotearoa a number of times at the United Nations convention...
Mar 31, 2020•55 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Kanoa (Ngāti Porou, Tuhoe) started off as a kid’s tv presenter and is now one of very few (less than a handful on our count) wahine Māori to lead prime time television in Aotearoa. Born in Gisborne, she spent much of her childhood moving around Tokomaru Bay, East Cape and Coromandel, before moving to Cromwell. Recently reconnecting to Ruatoria has become a significant part of her adult life and was key in her journey to strengthen her hononga to all sides of her whakapapa. Using her platform to ...
Mar 24, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Marama (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou) is a māmā, an activist, a proud wahine Māori and, the co-leader of the New Zealand Green Party. For years we have seen her on our television screens, in our newspapers, and at our community events. Many of her speeches in the house have gone viral and she isn’t afraid to front the public on some our toughest social and environmental issues. But who is the wahine behind the politician? In this episode we talk about her rise to politics and the realities of...
Mar 17, 2020•59 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Tia lives in Vancouver. It is the tupuna whenua of her husband and where she is raising her tamariki for the time being. Of Ngā Puhi and Te Aupōuri whakapapa, she is a māmā of six and the director of Whaea Productions. She has spent many years working towards the protection of our taiao, and challenging decision-makers in their recognition of Indigenous peoples. Being so far from home she finds solace in the Indigenous communities around her, and has focussed much of her recent mahi documenting ...
Mar 10, 2020•37 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Rangimarie is the tumuaki of Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Tututarakihi in the Far North. At only 29 she is transforming the education system by creating a unique kura, embeded in tikanga Māori, with a goal to actively exercise Tino Rangatiratanga. Tututarakihi aligns its school term with the maramataka. The curriculum caters to the interests of its tamariki, and the taiao as a core part of the classroom. Language, mathematics and science are learnt through diving, fishing, entrepreneurship, farming a...
Feb 24, 2020•46 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Julia is a dancer, mark maker, storyteller. Of Papua New Guinean and Australian heritage, she created the film Tep Tok : Reading Between Our Lines , sharing the journey to raise awareness for the dying art form that she is helping revive through her hand poke and hand tap method. She talks to us about her practice, about women’s traditional roles in mark making, and reviving the old, to new old.
Feb 17, 2020•51 min•Season 3Ep. 5
This full time artist is a bark cloth maker and currently living in Turanga (Gisborne). Her Aute pieces are adorned with celestial patterns, combining ancestral knowledge of Kapa and star navigation. In this episode we talk about how Hawaii helped Nikau find her calling, how art school almost turned her off being an artist and, that time she ran off to be in the circus.
Dec 22, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Aqui is a Janajāti woman from the Himalayan regions of South Asia. She travelled to Aotearoa from India earlier this year for an exhibition we both participated in at ST PAUL st Gallery . It was in the middle of the Ihumātao reclamation and so we recorded her interview in a portacom, on the whenua. In this episode she shares the reality of being an indigenous Indian woman, of growing up in a militarised neighbourhood, the rules around when and how people can gather, and the truths of the tea pla...
Dec 17, 2019•46 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Recently Pualani Case travelled to Aotearoa to bring us the stories of Hawaii and her fight to protect her maunga, Mauna Kea. Aunty Pua, as she is affectionately known, is a spiritual and cultural leader. She is a Kumu Hula, a teacher of traditional dance and chant, and is a passionate advocate for the Kanaka Maoli indigenous people of Hawaii. She holds multiple degrees, and was a public school teacher for more than 30 years, but today, she and her family work tirelessly to protect their ancestr...
Jul 16, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Dr Amber Aranui (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) has a special job. As a researcher for the Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation Programme at Te Papa Museum , she has spent the past 10 and a half years searching the world for our tūpuna , and working to bring them home. The bones and body parts of some of our ancestors are in museums, universities and private collections. Old. Young. Tāne. Wāhine. Amber’s mahi is to find them, learn about how they came to be there, investigate who they are, then try...
Jul 02, 2019•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 1
Lynell Tuffrey Huria is the only Māori patent attorney in Aotearoa. She is helping Māori navigate the intellectual property system, identify cultural property and develop protocols and processes for recognition and protection within Western structures.✊🏽 Of Ngati Ruanui and Nga Ruahine Rangi whakapapa, she is passionate about creating a better future for our people and in 2018 co-organised the first Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho conference to discuss ways we can protect our cultural heritage in this ever...
Jun 25, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Damaris Coulter (Ngāti Kahu) started her hospitality journey as a child, working at her uncle’s restaurant in Kaitaia. She grew up around hospo and spent her early adult life learning from some of the best chefs and restauranteurs in the business, both here, and in Italy and the UK. When she returned to Aotearoa, she opened Coco’s Cantina with her sister, and ran the restaurant for almost 10 years before signing over her share to pursue a world-changing idea. Her new project, The Realness , shin...
Jun 11, 2019•1 hr 15 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Donna Tamaariki and Moana Tamaariki-Pohe are twin sisters whose affinity for the Ocean was passed down to them from their tūpuna. Of Māori (Ngāti Whatua Orakei, Te Waiohua), Cook Islands, Tahitian and Tauiwi descent, the pair have spent their entire lives working to protect and preserve the ocean. Whether it be through waka ama, navigation, teaching, governance or policy change, they are working to have an everlasting positive effect on their tūpuna moana, the Waitematā. The pair are also having...
Jun 04, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Chelsea Winstanley is a filmmaker. She directed the documentary Tame Iti: The man behind the moko , and co-directed Waru , the heart-wrenching film about child abuse, made by 8 Māori female directors. Her producer credits include What We do in the Shadows , and the short film Night Shift . And most recently, she helped Hepi Mita make a documentary about his mum, the pioneering Merata Mita – sharing the stories of how she decolonised the screen. Now Based in Los Angeles with her husband and child...
May 14, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 6
When you think of a librarian, what image pops into your head? Because for me, before I met Kim Tairi, I saw an old nanny wearing a cardigan, glasses with a beaded chain, and a long burgundy skirt. Damn all those television programmes that embed stereotypes into my brain! Our NUKU //015 couldn’t be further away from that picture. Kim manages a university library and works with 100 staff. She has been working in this field, in different roles, for more than 25 years. Born in Otepoti, she has spen...
May 08, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Ninakaye Taane-Tinorau is of Ngati Maniapoto whakapapa. She was born and raised in Otautahi, Christchurch before moving to Auckland at age 19. There, she became a peep show dancer and stripper, working in the sex industry for 4 years. With that lifestyle, came an addiction to drugs and alcohol. She isn't one to shy away from this period in her life, in fact, she talks about it openly to help other wahine know the realities of this world. Today, the māmā of three (and new nana) is proudly 18 year...
May 01, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Hinewirangi is one of those kuia that you want to sit with for hours. Her knowledge, her experience and her stories, are mesmerising. She is a writer and poet. An activist and a tohunga of taonga puoro. She has worked in rape crisis centres and, in prison rehabilitation. In this episode we cover so many topics, as you do when you sit at the table with wahine full of wisdom. We talk about racism, Atua wahine and kaitiakitanga. Hinewirangi shares her personal story of sexual assault, how she faced...
Apr 25, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Dr Huhana Hickey (Ngāti Tahinga, Tainui, Ngai Tai) is a Crown Director and a passionate advocate for our disabled community, our whanau hauā. She has a long standing interest in human rights, particularly the rights of people who come from marginal backgrounds. She often comments on the consequences of discrimination and social oppression. Of Māori, Navajo, Aboriginal and Sami whakapapa, Huhana was raised in Stratford with a Pākeha adoptive whanau. At birth, her ethnicity was falsified, removing...
Apr 16, 2019•55 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Reina Vaai is from Sataua, Savai'i. She lived in Samoa in her early years, until a cyclone destroyed her village and, her home. Her parents made the decision to move to New Zealand permanently. Here, she grew up in a humble home that housed their wider whānau. Her parents and siblings all shared one room. Upon leaving school, Reina pursued a career in law, and decided to practice criminal law. Not one to be confined to a single career pathway, this ambitious young woman has also worked as a tele...
Apr 09, 2019•48 min•Season 2Ep. 1
