Waikato-Tainui Pou Whirinaki project

It was an honour to capture the inspiring stories of the first year of Waikato-Tainui’s Pou Whirinaki project.

This initiative involved twelve Pou Whirinaki who work with their marae or hapū groups to bring their collective educational mātuaranga dreams and aspirations to life. Their work also includes brokering relationships between marae and schools to ensure mana whenua voices and histories are part of the curriculum. The project upholds the mana motuhake of each marae or hapū to determine what this process looks like for them.

My mahi was to listen to these unique stories and share their impact. Initial zoom-based graphic recordings were reworked into final illustrations that were printed as a book, as well as a large-scale wall drawing for their Pō Whakanui celebration.