Dr Johnson Witehira and James Prier started Paku to introduce mātauranga Māori to young Kiwis.
Dr Johnson Witehira and James Prier started Paku to introduce mātauranga Māori to young Kiwis.
Dr Johnson Witehira (Tamahaki, Hinekura, Ngāpuhi, Ngai Tūteauru) and James Prier started Paku when Witehira noticed a gap in mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) learning tools at his son’s kōhanga (early childhood centre).
After pouring in their own funds and the “sweat equity” of late nights around taking care of a young family, Prier says the pair were overwhelmed with support from a Kickstarter campaign in late 2021 which led to their second product launch last year.
What is Paku?
“At Paku, we design tools, toys, anything we can think of to bring Māori stories and customary items to a contemporary, modern audience.“
“We have the Toki ($35) - it’s quite an iconic Māori item. They’re not just used for gardening, they’re more commonly used for high skilled carving.
“Then the Timo ($35) is a Māori gardening tool. It’s got a longer handle and a longer blade and would have been made from the crook of a tree.
“We scaled them down because we had the idea of using them for kids, so they’re more playful and made using modern materials, but they have that link back to the customary item they were inspired by.
“We have Pū Rākau ($109), blocks that help tamariki learn the Māori alphabet.“
How did you get into business?
“Dr Johnson is the other co-founder of Paku and we’ve been friends since high school.
“We had gone off on our own separate ways. I did an engineering degree at Massey University in Palmerston North in product design and development. I did the Fisher & Paykel Healthcare graduate programme in the early 2000s then went overseas with my wife.
Paku's Pū Rākau launched last year after the business' successful Kickstarter campaign.
“I came back and was lead design engineer at a company in Wellington called Formway Design who fly under the radar, but they are really New Zealand design brands for furniture.
“Johnson has another design consultancy business called IDIA. He did a graphic design degree at Whanganui (Te Pūkenga) and then has a PhD in Māori Visual Arts from Massey University in Wellington.
“He runs IDIA. They’re the partner you want to bring in if you’re trying to bring Māori culture and design into your business.
“[Paku] came together a few years ago when I was working at Formway and Johnson came in to do a talk on Māori visual arts and graphic design and how to incorporate that into your business.
“And he told a story about his son who was in kōhanga.
Paku founders Dr Johnson Witehira (left) and James Prier (right).
“He said: ‘I did notice that he’s in the sand pit digging with European tools. Māori used to have all of these tools that they developed themselves, but they’re not really around anymore’.
“I said it was a great idea [to develop traditional Māori tools] and that I’ll try and design some things.
“A couple of months later, I had made a bunch of prototypes, went around to his whare and we got really excited about it as a concept.
“That was pre-Covid and it took us a couple of years to develop. We both had young families and were working other jobs.
“Eventually, we made our first product - the Toki, gardening tools for tamariki. They were scaled-down versions of what was here before Europeans arrived.
“It wasn’t just waka and taiaha, there were other tools. We thought about how to bring those customary ideas back.
“Doing it through our kids was important to us seeing how they were growing up with more cultural acceptance. It’s really exciting for us to be part of that.“
Paku's first range, the Toki and Timo gardening tools.
How did you raise the funds to start the business?
“Our first product was funded through a Kickstarter at the end of 2021. Before that, we had done a couple of years of development and paid for it all ourselves.
“If you don’t count that sweat equity that you put into a business as a start-up, all of those late nights you put in around the other jobs and the families you’re trying to support, it was around $40,000 of our own cash that we put in.
“We had a great response at the end of 2021.
“We ended up winning the New Zealand Design Awards product category, which is a pretty big deal for us.
“In October 2022, we took the overall prize then that got us a little bit more recognition.“
“Because we were creating products from a Māori perspective, we were clear that we should try and do as much as possible in Aotearoa even though it would have been much cheaper to do everything offshore.
“That did make it more expensive than it could have been, but it was important to our kaupapa (purpose).
“For the Kickstarter, I think we put $12,000 as our target and ended up getting just over $50,000 for it, which blew us away.“
What materials do you use to make your products?
“We were thinking these tools were originally made of stone and other natural materials. We did go down that route for a little bit, but ended up having a product that was quite expensive.
Paku co-founder James Prier says the team are currently working on their third range of kid's toys inspired by mātauranga Māori.
“You get a piece of art at the end of it, whereas we were trying to produce a functional tool that somebody could use and we wanted to make it as cheap as possible but we didn’t want a plastic toy.
“I was working on another project and had a source of really high-grade recycled nylon in Lower Hutt (Wellington).
“It’s a bit harder to work with recycled materials. You do have to be careful about how you use it and design for it, but in the end we’ve come out with a high-quality item that we’re happy to put against the more expensive products that you’d find in big box stores.“
What do you want to achieve through Paku?
“It changes a little bit but at the core, if we can be a part of bringing mātauranga Māori back into the conversation in a way people want to engage with it.
“We want Māori to feel like they’re in a Māori place. If they can do that by owning a little Toki instead of a potting spade, that’s awesome.
