Kaupapa Companies: My Taiao - supporting Māori in study and business

NZME's Astley Nathan, who has recently started his own te reo Māori journey, is on a mission to showcase the unique kaupapa or principles that are integral to Māori businesses. In part 4 of this series, Astley visits My Taiao clothing and apparel in Northland.

Tāmati Rakena and Jude Campbell run the Tahunakura Charitable Trust and the My Taiao clothing and apparel.

The couple are passionate about the growth, progress and economic development of the Tai Tokerau region. This passion is evident in what they do with both Taiao and their charitable trust.

Tamati, Jude and two other trustees established the trust because they were finding it hard to find support in their post-graduate studies.

They quickly realised there were others in Tai Tokerau who also felt isolated so they created the trust to support people in Northland who needed assistance in their post-graduate studies through wānanga and education.

"So the main purpose of Taiao is to financially support Māori students in their whakapapa [genealogy], and instead of just postgraduate studies we made it all tertiary studies," Jude says.

"The difference between a business and a Kaupapa [purpose] is we look at how we can give to people instead of taking," Tāmati says.

"We decided to do a small run of bush wear … and that was about 100 garments and once we did the release everything sold out within four days, Tāmati says.

"The main thing was people saw the reason why we had started up the T clothing range and everybody, especially from te Tai Tokerau, was on board straight away."

None of the money goes back to the four trustees, they say. The money made through Taiao is put towards creating scholarships, buying educational resources and to implement te reo Māori initiatives in te Tai Tokerau - another important kaupapa for Tamati and Jude.

Astely Nathan (left) interviews Jude Campbell (middle) and Tāmati Rakena (right), of My Taiao Apparel and Clothing. Photo / Jed Bradley

Ultimately, they both want to see te Tai Tokerau grow in all areas and they are using their business and charitable trust as a vehicle to achieve it.

"We definitely knew there was a market for it and we knew our whānau would get behind and support it," Jude says.

The couple and whānau of Tahunakura and My Taiao received the Covid-19 Merit Award for Best Emerging and newly created enterprise at the most recent te Taitokerau Maori Business Awards.