This story was written during the Covid lockdown period in 2022.

Tell us a bit about Whatu Creative - what do you do and who do you serve?

He pakihi Māori e whakatairanga ana i ngā Toi Māori ki te ao. Whatu Creative Ltd, are a family business based in the Far North of Aotearoa, NZ. We promote our Maori arts to the world. Our first product the "Tukutuku Toi Kit" is an innovative and contemporary take on the traditional craft kit that teaches the traditional Maori artform of Tukutuku.

We’ve launched our first product, the “Tukutuku Toi Kit” in October 2021. We initially started our pakihi to grow Toi Māori kaupapa in our takiwā of Te Hiku. The main purpose of the Toi Kit is to make our Toi Māori knowledge base accessible in a modern, colourful, multi-purpose way! The Tukutuku Toi Kit was developed out of our kura kaupapa in Kaitaia and serves as a storytelling tool for all ages. 

What was it like starting a new business during a pandemic?

It was initially stressful as we were planning to launch, we had to postpone our exhibitions and workshops when Covid returned in 2021.

During lockdown, our samples arrived for the Tukutuku Toi Kit and we pivoted our time towards developing the product side. We launched the Tukutuku Toi Kit on the 17th of October 2021 by Google Form and sold out 200 kits in 1 hour. It was stressful telling whānau they’d missed out, and exciting too that social media had played a huge part in selling out our Tukutuku Toi Kits. Through social media we grew our presence online that saw us sell 1200 Toi Kits.

I was also on the Ka Hao i te Ao E-Commerce programme at the time and that accelerated our presence online tenfold. Over the next month we worked long days to make stock for the Christmas season. In December we delivered 500 orders throughout Aotearoa and Australia. So we're extremely grateful for the tautoko of our pakihi Whatu Creative so early on in our journey. 

What were the challenges during your first year?

Our main challenge has been around scaling up and maintaining a quality product. We are still navigating this issue and hope to overcome it over the next few months. Accepting the changes from the pandemic and traffic lights system is a challenge but we’re trying to be flexible with our reality. The beauty of our mahi and product is that it's been adaptable and serves many kaupapa too.

How did the lockdowns & traffic light system affect Whatu Creative?

The pandemic has been problematic for our community events as we navigate the traffic light system. However the nature of our Tukutuku Toi Kits has seen this product sell itself as it helps whānau reconnect, revives our mahi tupuna and a therapeutic mahi too. We feel the highs and lows of the pandemic. Our Tukutuku Toi Kit is the perfect mahi to do at home. All our kaupapa marae and wananga that have been on hold for the past 2 years, our product has been a good substitute for beginners and experienced weavers. We look forward to exhibiting and reconnecting Kanohi ki te Kanohi when time allows.

What do you hope for your business this year 2022?

We hope to grow our business with a few new products by Matariki. We also hope we can display our mahi tukutuku in the near future for our community to enjoy. Overall we have achieved great sales and we hope to maintain and grow our sales in the next year.

What support do you think is needed for businesses in Te Hiku over the next year?

We would love to find a way to have our rangatahi intern for us. We have hired our local marae and whanaunga to help us prepare our materials. It would be awesome to find partnerships with other providers in this space in our takiwā of Te Hiku. Any support getting businesses online would be helpful too, connectivity and resourcing to help our small pakihi grow their presence online.

Ngā mihi Awhina for sharing your pakihi journey and giving us an insight to what it has been like launching your business during a pandemic.

You can find more about Whatu Creative products via their website.