24/09/2026
Earlier this week we spent the day in a strategy wānanga with our whānau at WAHA. On paper they're a creative content business. Spend time with them and you see a whānau enterprise taking te ao Māori from the kāinga to the world.
Mum and Dad built WAHA on decades of relationships across rongoā practitioners, kapa haka, iwi leadership and the corporate world. Their sons and nephew bring the taiohi lens: visual culture, storytelling, and business savvy they don't even realise they have. You see it in how they capture people, place and mauri. With a stellar track record behind them, they're ready for the next stage of growth and leadership.
We've worked with over 100 pakihi Māori, but we can't go deep with too many at once. Off-the-shelf packages work for some. We walk with the ones who are up for a longer journey, where trust has been tested and the ripples reach community. When we strengthen each other and then come together on a kaupapa, the value multiplies.
On the surface WAHA is our opposite. Young tāne, creatives, leading in the fast-moving digital world. Social media isn't high on the aunties of Te Pae Roa's priority list 😂 But we're the same where it counts: Te Tai Tokerau whakapapa, values, and contributing to something bigger than our own nets.
At the Tiaki Taonga symposium we were reminded by Kura Moehau “Ka pū te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi. Oti anō ngā rangatahi, pātai atu ki ngā ruha, kei whea ngā ika?”
Cast the old net aside and let the new net go fishing, but the new net must ask the old net where all the fish are 💚
