Te Aho Ngārahu Comics: Pūrākau Māori
Te Aho Ngārahu Comics: Te Aho Ngārahu is the bright burning ember at the base of the ashes of te ahi kā, the home fires. The kōrero here is for our communities to reignite the fire within the stories of the people in Te Ao Māori. As apart of an annual fund increased to 3.4 Million in 2020, Te Aho Ngārahu is an initiative to improve the access to quality te reo Māori localised curriculum resources to support ākonga, kaiako and Kāhui Ako learning in and through te reo Māori in both Māori medium and English medium settings.
Māui Studios has been made a service provider for Māori Medium, meaning we had the opportunity to help create these stories alongside communities who had stories to tell! We developed a tried and true method of creating these stories in a whole new way, as Augmented Reality Graphic Novels. We deliver this content both printed and digitally which makes it more engaging visually, aurally and physically and it caters to the diverse needs of teachers and learners and is a novel and unique experience. Below are four new stories to be discovered as apart of the latest round created here at Māui Studios.
This project was unique in its approach, as the stories were sourced directly from iwi and kaumātua who collaborated with the team towards the ultimate outcome. Each project leader worked with three different iwi from around the country and transcribed and delivered a modern day interpretation of the insightful storytelling from our esteemed elders. Our production team then took the stage manifesting these graphic novels visually through extensive research and conceptualisation of the transcripts. The rest is history as each world was brought to life through graphic novel and animation storytelling outcomes.