Kai Rawa Roopu Callaghan Innovation and Plant & Food Research recently hosted Kai Rawa, a group of Māori business on a food-tech visit to the USA. The trip included 3 days in the San Francisco area with visits to tech incubators and accelerators, Plug & Play and Rocketspace. A quick visit to Google was fitted [...]

“Making Paddles That We Love” Love it or hate it, Stand Up Paddle-boarding (SUP) is the world’s fastest growing water sport. WHAI paddles started off when innovator Anthony Clyde (Ngāti Naho) took to his SUP Paddle with a hacksaw, in the back yard of his house at Ohiwa. Always looking for more speed, he knew [...]

While in San Francisco recently the Kai Rawa group got to experience the non-meat burger that looks like a burger, tastes like a burger, but isn’t. The burger produced by Impossible Foods is making headway into US restaurants while other plant based and cultured foods are now in supermarkets both in the USA and Asia. [...]

Poutama’s Beverage Cluster is made up of wine, beer, water and craft non-alcoholic beverage companies. A meeting last year identified opportunities for enhancing their collaboration through economies of scale in areas such as production, distribution and marketing costs. In addition there were ideas around developing a collective brand that leverages the Māori identify and story. [...]

By Oscar Nathan, GM Destination Rotorua - ex. Poutama Business Advisor and CEO of Tamaki Tours New Zealand tourism shines that less brighter with the unexpected passing earlier this month of one of the industry’s true tourism pioneers’ Doug Tamaki of Tamaki Maori Village (Tamaki Tours). A life best described as ‘lived to the full’ [...]

Iwi – Kai Tahu ATP Fitness Club is a Health & Fitness company that has been running since 2013 in Palmerston North.  Owned and operated by Pele Aumua, ATP Fitness Club is “About the People” and provides group sessions with a focus on strength and conditioning. ATP Fitness Club encompasses a range of functional fitness [...]

Iwi - Ngāti Rangiwewehi After 7 years of living in Victoria, Australia, with me looking after our two young boys and my husband working in the hospitality industry, we decided to come back to NZ to my hometown of Rotorua.  During our time in Australia we had discussed the opportunity of buying our own business, [...]

In 2012, Te Manawa o Tūhoe, Ngati Awa and Poutama started brainstorming on the possibility of establishing a geothermal powered milk processing plant in Kawerau.  Fast forward to 2017 and the Kawerau dairy project has moved a step closer to reality with the completion of the feasibility study and peer review of the financial model. [...]

Collaborative Leadership 2 Inspire Maori Business  Northland is known for its tropical climate, white sandy beaches, ancient kauri, fishing, diving and kaimoana.  What many don’t know is that it also has some of the hardest working, innovative, down to earth entrepreneurs in New Zealand. 300 kilometres north of Auckland is the quiet town of Kaitaia, [...]

Innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit have always been a strong feature of Maoritanga (A Māori way of life).  From our ancestors who harnessed the natural elements and looked to the stars to navigate and discover new lands, to the tribes that arrived in Aotearoa creating new ways of living, producing food and trading goods. The [...]