Sisters Kelly and Amy started Rerehua Boutique last year to give them a creative outlet and celebrate te ao Māori. Photo / Supplied
Sisters Ashley Pihema and Kelly Pihema-Berridge (Kai Tahu, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi) started Rerehua Boutique last year as an outlet for their creativity and to celebrate Te Ao Māori.
As a new mum, Ashley says her passion for her community and whakapapa have driven the business to embrace te reo, tikanga and kaupapa Māori in their business strategy.
Currently busy with Matariki preparation, they say other wāhine in business have been integral to achieving growth and sustainability in their first year of business.
What is Rerehua Boutique?
Rerehua Boutique is an e-commerce business we started in May 2022. We provide contemporary taonga Māori, currently offering a range of jewellery and accessories engraved with te reo Māori and mātauranga (knowledge). We will be expanding into apparel and other goods soon.
We’re based in Pukekohe, Tāmaki Makaurau, and our kaupapa is about creating taonga that celebrates the indigenous language and heritage of Aotearoa.
What do you do at Rerehua?
I’m the creative director - I create the designs for our taonga, work on photography for the Shopify site and manage the content for our social media platforms.
My sister Kelly is the business director - she handles all the finance, accounts, distribution and logistics with our suppliers.
We have been working in education and the social services sector for over 10 years and Rerehua Boutique is a creative outlet for the aroha we have for the reo, tikanga and kaupapa Māori. We are very grateful to have the support of a Kāi Tahu grant to start our business.
How long have you been running Rerehua?
We’re the new kids on the block and our first year anniversary of being in business was in May. It’s been really awesome to be part of some of the community kaupapa like Konei, Nuku Woman, Māori Makete, and Matatini was massive.
It’s been cool to meet other Māori in business and just see how thriving the community is in this space. It’s been great to meet our customers at different events. There is a very broad group of people that come through to our pop-up stalls from rangatahi (young people) to koroua (elders), from professionals, lawyers, media personalities, mamas, and athletes.
Why did you start the business?
Rerehua is a creative outlet for me - I enjoy designing and creating. It’s all about sharing the reo (language), tikanga (customs) and mātauranga.
I believe in the vision of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, to see our people thrive in our Tino Rangatiratanga but also through a treaty lens it offers a unique identity of belonging for Tangata Tiriti and Tangata Moana.
What are your best-sellers?
The ‘Tino series’ is our best-seller, particularly the Tino gold hoops. The Tino series is inspired by the Tino Rangatiratanga flag created by Hiraina Marsden, Jan Dobson and Linda Munn in 1989. The Tino Rangatiratanga flag has become synonymous with indigenous autonomy, authority and independence.
In the second article of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Māori are granted tino rangatiratanga, the exclusive and undisturbed possession and authority of their whenua, kainga and taonga. We are very fortunate to have the blessing of Whaea Linda Munn for our Tino series.
Other popular sellers are the whakataukī necklaces that feature proverbs about identity and courage. Wearing te reo and mātauranga in your everyday fit allows you to indigenous your space. It really is an act of decolonisation, resistance and an assertion of mana motuhake. I believe that’s why our taonga appeals to many people, of all ages and genders.
What is the inspiration behind your designs?
The inspiration for our designs is based on spreading te reo and mātauranga. We want people to feel empowered and proud of the indigenous culture of Aotearoa.
Our taonga are based on whakatauki (proverbs) and kaupapa (principles) like the Tino series. People often ask the meaning and translations of the taonga so it’s a good learning opportunity.
I’ve had people who are non-Māori ask me, ‘Is that the Air NZ symbol?’ on our Tino series. It’s funny to see their response when I say, ‘No, this tohu symbolises the Māori flag that represents indigenous autonomy and self-determination for Māori in Aotearoa’.
Who are your customers?
Most of our clientele are Māori but we also have Pākehā, Pasifika and tauiwi that love wearing our taonga. We have a lot of aroha for the allies.
It’s amazing and humbling to see people wear our taonga! And interesting, because we don’t have a particular target audience. We really just design stuff that we want to wear and own, and feel proud to wear in all spaces.
What is your background?
My academic background is in the arts, majoring in Māori studies and criminology. That led me into education and I have been in the classroom for nearly 10 years. It has been extremely challenging and demanding, especially during the past few years of Covid but I’ve been very well supported by my school’s tumuaki (principal) and senior management to grow and develop the faculty and Māori programme at Diocesan.
With our pakihi (business), Rerehua allows me to incorporate education and design into the taonga we create. So it’s mahi, but doesn’t feel like it somehow because I really enjoy it.
My sister is the business head and she’s so good with logistics, finances and all the finer details, and I just stay in my lane and create and design. We work really well together.
My parents are in their 60s and are great role models for us in their pursuit of education and tertiary study in their adult years. Dad is currently doing more study while he works full time, and my mum is looking to do full immersion reo next year.
My parents were part of the urban migration of Māori moving into the city during the 1960 to the 1970s. Our koroua were focused on them going to school and getting a job, so although they were native speakers they did not see it as a priority to pass it down to our parents’ generation.
They experienced punishment when speaking te reo at school so the trauma also impacted them heavily. They moved to Auckland for mahi and shifted from the Far North to Ponsonby and then settled in Ōtara.
My sister and I were fortunate enough to go back to our marae when we were younger but were not raised with the language so I enrolled in the Rumaki Reo programme at Te Wananga o Takiura in 2009.
They say it takes one generation to lose a language and four generations to gain it back. Our baby will attend kōhanga and we will raise her in the reo so she’ll be the fourth generation to fully gain the reo back as a first language.
The dream is to work from home with our pakihi, grow our brand and kaupapa to spread aroha for the language and culture, raise our tamariki in a bilingual environment, and build a papakainga where we can make intergenerational living a reality.
How did you get into business?
I’ve never done any formal training in design but always dabbled in the arts with painting and print. As a teacher, you need to be creative because we are always producing new resources and creating activities for students to support their learning. The kids and creative aspect of creating resources is why I have stayed in the classroom for as long as I have.
Our whanau have worked in the education sector and social services for many years so we wanted to ensure if we had some success in our pakihi, we were able to give back to the community to stay true to the ethos of Tino Rangatiratanga.
That is to see the reality of thriving, healthy living for our whānau and communities and to drive forward together. We will continue to give koha where we can, and focus on investing into kaupapa that are driven to improve the quality of life for Māori.
What do you want to achieve through Rerehua?
Our aspirations for this kaupapa is to create beautiful, quality and stylish taonga that can be worn for any occasion, particularly in professional spaces.
We are unapologetically proud to be Māori and hope when people wear our taonga that they feel confident, empowered and proud to whakanui (celebrate) and represent the indigenous reo and heritage of Aotearoa.
What advice do you have for other wāhine looking to get into business?
Our advice to other wāhine would be to do some research into your industry, product or service.
Create a business plan, look into iwi or community funding that may be able to support - and then go for it.
Alka Prasad is an Auckland-based business reporter covering small business and retail.
The Government has committed funding to the sector in an effort to support future plans.