Whāinga | Our mission
“Maimoatia te reo, maimoatia te iwi.”
Our motto is all about cherishing the language of this land as well as the people in your life.
Maimoa Creative is a Māori and whānau owned brand based in Tauranga that is passionate about promoting the Māori language and culture through unique designs, products and resources. We aim to help normalise the use of te reo Māori in everyday life.
Ngā mātāpono | Our guiding values
Kaitiakitanga | Guardianship: Dedicated to the guardianship, protection and revitalisation of te reo Māori, and recognising the responsibility that comes with being a kaitiaki. Ensuring authenticity, honouring our tūpuna, and respecting tikanga.
Whakamanawa | Instil confidence: Creating a safe space for people to journey, perspectives to be shared, knowledge to be retained, making everyone feel valued and empowered.
Panekiritanga | Excellence: Taking pride in all we do and striving to progress, perform and thrive in everything that we do.
Meet the team
Passionate, multi-skilled, and driven by kaupapa — meet the small but mighty team behind Maimoa Creative 👇🏽
Aroha
KAIWHAKAHAERE | FOUNDER & DIRECTOR
(Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Ranginui)
Aroha is the creative force behind Maimoa Creative — a graphic designer, hand-lettering artist, lifelong learner and advocate of te reo Māori. She started Maimoa Creative to merge her love for typography and te ao Māori, with a mission to help normalise te reo and support others on their language journey. With a sharp eye for detail and a big heart for kaupapa, everything she creates is thoughtful, purposeful, and proudly Māori.
Don’t be fooled by her sweet and gentle vibe — Aroha’s got a sharp wit and cheeky sass that sometimes seeps into her mahi and content 🙈
Hamuera
MĀTANGA REO | LANGUAGE CONSULTANT
(Ngāti Mutunga, Te Ātiawa)
A reo Māori teacher and curriculum developer by day, Hamuera is our resident reo expert, grammar geek, and unofficial tech whiz. He’s also the smooth voice behind our audio resources 🎧 Precise, passionate, and unapologetically dedicated to the revitalisation of te reo Māori — he’s the steady backbone behind the scenes at Maimoa Creative.
One of Hamuera's secret superpowers is his immaculate folding skills — even fitted sheets don’t stand a chance. He also has a habit of bursting into improv waiata at full kapa haka volume — why say it when you can sing it? 🎶
Imogen
POUWHAKAHAERE WHAKATAIRANGA | MARKETING & SALES MANAGER
(Waikato Tainui, Hāmoa)
Imogen keeps our marketing and sales humming — leading creative campaigns, nurturing customer relationships, growing our wholesale whānau, and helping Maimoa Creative show up loud and proud in all the right places, bringing purpose and precision to our digital presence.
Based in sunny Mangawhai with her husband and their rescue kurī, Imogen has called everywhere from Samoa to Melbourne to London home. She's a certified yoga teacher (yes, even on a private island in Fiji!), a foodie, and lover of strong kawhe, ocean swims, and a perfectly brewed peppermint tea 🍵
Chase
KAITIAKI RAWA | ACCOUNTS MANAGER
Chase takes care of the numbers — invoicing, reporting, inventory and bookkeeping — all with quiet precision and zero fuss. A detail-lover with a knack for tidy spreadsheets (and even tidier dishwasher stacking), he brings structure to our creative chaos.
When he's not crunching numbers or chasing invoices, he's a devoted pāpā of two, squash player, guitar strummer, and volunteer with Tauranga Land Search and Rescue 🦺
