Workshop: Redesigning Aotearoa | Tāmaki Makaurau

Grow your cultural understanding for how to shape great brands, design, creative and storytelling through culturally authentic co-design process and practice.

Experience & Benefits

Spend a day with Ira, an award winning strategic brand consultancy who have worked with brands across government, public and community as diverse as the Ministry of Health to Spark, Kiwibank to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.  

Taught in a culturally immersive environment at Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae: learn in a supportive space to develop strategic, creative and cultural expertise.

Learn to weave together tikanga Māori with tried and tested strategic models and frameworks. 

With a wealth of models and case studies across public, private and community organisations. We take a holistic approach to how cultural intelligence can create lasting value and impact for your organisation, customers and communities

• Transform the way you understand te ao Māori

• Increase confidence to solve problems through Māori co-design processes 

• Be enriched with cultural creativity and storytelling

Program / Content

Ngā Toi Māori 

Māori Creativity

Be inspired by a visual exploration of the history of Māori artforms. Understand their origin, meaning and how they are applied in diverse forms from weaving, to carving, tā moko and painting. 

Te Kōrero Auaha

Storytelling

No creative outcome  is complete without a culturally grounded story to engage hearts and minds. Learn how to shape great stories and how not to just translate from English to Te Reo Māori. 

Te Reo Rangatira

Māori Language 

Te Reo Māori is a powerful force at enhancing any creative endeavour. Learn the best practice principles of using Te Reo Māori across diverse touchpoints from web, to naming, taglines and key messaging. 

Ngā Tohu & Tuakiri

Branding & Design Systems 

Learn how to create brands that convey deep cultural meaning and design systems that intelligently balance cultural expressions across all touch points in a brand eco-system. 

Ngā Tikanga

Co-Design Process 

Learn the skills of shaping collaboratively the correct process to ensure objectives, resource allocation, responsibilities and outcomes are set up for success. Access co-design resources to apply.

Te Kōhaki Ahurea

Cultural Appropriation

Define clearly how to bring culture into your kaupapa without risking cultural appropriation, offence or alienating any audience regardless of cultural background.

About the facilitator

Our learning journeys are facilitated by
Johnson Mckay, Head of Culture & Strategy. 

Kia ora, for over 20 years I have had the privilege of working with amazing leaders, strategists, creatives and cultural experts. Because of this, I have had a unique immersion in how the best minds courageously confront challenges with optimism, thoughtfulness and creativity. My passion is to find simplicity out of complexity and then share it with others in an accessible way. 

I hope these learning journeys inspire you, challenge you and guide you to shape culturally intelligent solutions for all the people of Aotearoa.

Testimonial
I attended both of Ira’s previous workshops in 2022, and I loved them.

Johnson and the team explained Te Ao Māori and Māori art in a way that I (as a Pakeha immigrant) hadn’t experienced before. We were shown examples, step by step, of innovation, protest, traditionalization and revitalisation, also discussing appropriation, tikanga and co-design using excellent real-life examples. Did I find it challenging? Sure, at times, but it was great information, delivered well and there was a lot to take in. 

As those previous workshops have stuck with me, I’ve signed up for the latest ones. I’m particularly looking forward to learning more about co-design and seeing Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae  – it’s bound to be an experience!
Jane