Te Matatini: Teenage CEO talks sustainability and hauora research for poi

Georgia Latu (Kai Tahu, Ngāpuhi) will be promoting her award-winning business at Te Matatini.

Business School Associate Dean Māori Rachel Wolfgramm, Young Māori Business Leader Award winner Georgia Latu and Marama Royal, chair of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.

Georgia Latu's business knows no bounds when it comes to success, but the end goal for her is to see her poi flourish on Te Matatini stage.

Pōtiki Poi will have a stall at the 2023 national kapa haka festival, 22 to 25 February, alongside festival sponsor Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.

Georgia, now 16, was awarded 'Young Māori Business Leader' at the University's Māori Business Awards in 2022 for her pakihi’s contribution to Te Ao Māori and the wider world.

The award recognised Pōtiki Poi for sustainability, employing environmentally friendly fabrics and an inclusive business model.

For Georgia, Pōtiki Poi started in 2019, as a fundraiser for a trip. She was just 12 years old. Within three days, Georgia had raised $1,000 through making and selling poi on Facebook. That pivotal moment led to the business with her mother, Anna Latu, as her business partner.

Georgia was keen to find out more about the health benefits of poi. She went on to win five awards for her research project, Poi Porotiti Taupatupatu Taupatupatu, at the Otago Science Fair in 2020, a year after she launched Pōtiki Poi.

Her research explored the health benefits of poi for the cognitive function in [Māori] kaumātua.

"The research involved giving some kaumātua a booklet and a puzzle, and to see if poi movements could enhance their brain activity to solve the puzzle – and it did," she said.

"It also brightened their hauora, because it connected them to a time of whānau when they were children.

"Our findings covered the different pou of Te Whare Tapa Whā, especially taha tinana, strengthening movements, and taha wairua."

But the inspiration to launch Pōtiki Poi was to honour her little brother who is impacted by diversability.

"Api came into our world just as Pōtiki Poi launched and it made us think about how we could create a world that supported diversability. Api was a huge drive for me."

"As a young Māori business wāhine I face so many barriers, but there will be more for my brother. Pōtiki Poi will give him an equal opportunity, and we employ other people of diversabilities."

In 2022, Georgia launched a dance academy called Kura Poi, a combination of dance and poi. It's aim is to close the gap for those who can't access funding to learn hip hop dancing, and to learn poi.

"We have a seven-year-old at our academy who is dyslexic and we were really happy to take her in," she said.

"Her mother told us that Kura Poi has given her a sense of comfort and confidence, to a point that she sleeps with her poi under her pillow. That to me felt like a major achievement, to see that poi has an impact on people of all different backgrounds."

Pōtiki Poi can now be found in Countdown, a rare example of an indigenous product made by Māori to be in a mainstream commercial organisation.

Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland, is a sponsor of Te Matatini Herenga Waka Herenga Tangata National Kapa Haka Festival 2023, in support with the University’s Iwi-manaaki and hosting rohe, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. Te Matatini brings together the country’s most elite Kapa Haka groups in celebration of Māori culture. The festival is held biennually in different cities and is welcomed back to Tāmaki Makaurau after 21 years. The University of Auckland’s sponsorship aligns with Taumata Teitei, the University’s strategy to enhance kaupapa Māori.

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Te Rina Triponel | Kaitohutohu Pāpāho Māori
E: te.rina.triponel@auckland.ac.nz