Kiwa Digital takes Māori Excellence in Export prize at International Business Awards

Kiwa Digital were among the winners at the Māori Business Awards. Photo / Supplied

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Māori cultural creative agency Kiwa Digital walked away with the He Kai Kei Aku Ringa Award for Māori Excellence in Export at the 2022 International Business Awards.

Kiwa Digital is the creator of the audio production tool Voice Q, which allows it to cover a soundtrack's original language with another language to make it accessible to a wider audience in a process known as dubbing.

The company was responsible for dubbing the South Korean Netflix series Squid Game - which Netflix has named as its most-watched show - into English, with 1.65 billion hours viewed in the first 28 days of its release.

Kiwa Digital also worked alongside Matewa Media to produce Disney movies Moana, The Lion King and, most recently, Frozen in te reo Māori.

Kiwa Digital CEO Steven Renata. Photo / ODT

It hasn't always been easy for the company since it began almost 20 years ago, but chief executive Steven Renata has some advice for other Māori organisations who want to go global.

"Kia kaha, kia manawanui, kia mau - if you can dream it, you can do it. It's normal that we have Māori there to navigate, to innovate, to collaborate, to lead, to compete. We can be as much of the ecosystem globally as we want to be, if we decide we want to be."

There were 10 award categories in total. Rockit Global - a company from Napier which sells miniature apples - came away with the Supreme Award, and Ethique, an ethical plastic-free beauty product company, was acknowledged with the Excellence in Sustainability Award.

The annual formal event was held on the Queen's Wharf in Tāmaki Makaurau and MC'd by television broadcasters Oriini Kaipara and Jesse Mulligan.