The creation of abundance takes many hands.

Mā rau ringa e oti ai te mahi - Many hands complete the work.

He Kura Whakaaro: Whiria ngā rau o te harakeke, kia hua mai ai te takapau kōrero.

Right now, on the outside, I know that Takapaukura looks like a shiny, well-polished business. Tomorrow, it could be a downright mess, and by the end of the day, I could be ready to pack it ALL in (again-again-again 👀) lol 🤣

I don’t know if its common knowledge, but its about to be. I built this business from scratch. But it wasn’t for the reason that most other consultancy’s are set up; to “fill a gap”. I set up Takapaukura because I wanted to actively contribute to the myriad of work that’s already taken place in reviving our reo; I wanted to do my part.

So I started it on my own, and with my own money, while my husband continued to work full-time in a “real job” 🙄. I did it while being a first-time māmā to my son, who got roped in without much of a choice. But, this was my support system.

I didn’t get a loan. I didn’t have a mentor (well, not a ‘formal’ one; I had lots of mates giving advice though!). I didn’t attend a local startup workshop and I didn’t receive a ‘kickstart’ grant from anywhere - not MBIE or TPK. I didn’t have anyone in my corner who'd done it before and who could tell me what was coming.

Just me, a kaupapa I believed in, a husband who supported me 💯 and a son who reminded me on the daily that he was my ‘why’.

What I’ve come to realise is that there aren't many spaces where Māori in business can actually talk about these sorts of things honestly. The wins? 🏆🥇🥳 Yeah — we're really good at celebrating those! But, what about the rest of it…?

Like, the part where you let your security blanket of full time work go to start your business while raising tamariki? Or, the bit where you pick up a bit of study on the side, just in case things don’t work out? How you try your absolute BESTto keep to a routine so you can stay healthy across all aspects; te taha wairua, te taha hinengaro, te taha whānau me te taha tinana. What about when you’re trying to find five minutes that just belong to you, but not behind a locked door in a toilet or a bathroom? Lol 😅 Then there’s the whole “trying to keep work at work" thing — which, let's be honest, never, EVER actually happens 🤦🏽‍♀️

I have NO CLUE 🤷🏽‍♀️ what it's like for our tāne, but I feel like this is what it's particularly like for wāhine. Especially our Super-Māmā doing it all at once, holding it all down, because if they don't, who will...?

I haven’t been able to find that space. So I'm making a start on one now.

The rest of our website talks about collective abundance; the endeavour to tend to the whole whānau, so each individual can flourish in their own right. It’s something I wholeheartedly believe can work for us as Māori all the way down, because I have experienced it myself with my little whānau. And, because of that experience, I know and understand what it takes and what it costs to build it, from the ground up.

I'll be straight up with you about what this is, though. It's where I can share these experiences of mine myself and in my own words–so it’s partly an outlet for me.

Apparently the saying is that “the devil’s in the detail”, but in the mahi that we do, there’s no devil. There is a lot of detail though, but none without a particular reason or purpose. Contrary to that, there’s also a lot of unknowns and/or “TBC’s”, but I’ll explain what that means in a separate entry. Basically, there are some things that I won’t talk about in detail — standard client privilege, and all that. So, this won't be an open-book, tell-all story about any specific contract we have done or are currently working on.

But what I will do is open a door. I’ll share the parts of the journey that are mine to share. And maybe, if you've walked a similar road, I can give you something to sink your teeth into, something to contribute to, or at least something you can relate to, where you nod along and go "yup–same."

I've spent years delivering on work inside the system — across every government we've had since 2018. Four of them now–IKR, aaaages! 😅 But, you learn things, doing this mahi over that period of time. You learn how the system really moves and who it's really built for; who does the heavy lifting before anyone's even looking (or thinking, sometimes!), and why we’re even doing it. I've got plenty to say about all of that — but I’ll do it carefully though, and in my own time.

So here's what you can expect from this space. Most business owners start with “why they started the kaupapa” etc, etc. We’re well beyond that now, so we’ll dive right into it.

I've already started drafting up a series that I'm pretty fired up about — more on that soon. But alongside it, I'll write about multiple other kaupapa, like the things that matter to Māori founders and entrepreneurs, to wāhine Māori, and to every māmā out there keeping herself and her whānau afloat while trying to build something of value. If I get time, I’ll share my whakaaro on current affairs as well, when and if I want to have a say on it.

Some of the writing will be a reflection. Some of it'll be a bit of a reckoning. All of it comes from lived experience, and the only time I’ll refer to theory is when I need to include references (from many sources) to back me up.

Nō reira, if you've been doing your own thing too — let me start off with: Nau mai, piri mai. You're in good company here! Follow along if you’re interested and let's build us all a space we’ve never really had.

E kī ana te kōrero a rātou mā: Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini kē. My strength was never mine alone — it is the strength of the many.

To kick off the conversation: What's the one thing you wish someone had told you before you started? Leave your kōrero in the comments.

In the meantime, I’ll be back soon with piece 1 of my first series. “What’s it about…?”, you might ask…? You’ll have to come back to find out. Even better, subscribe to our site so you’re the first to know when I post them up! 😉

He kura te whakaaro; horahia mai ki te takapau nei.

Hei konā mai i roto i ngā mihi - NA.