Mātou

Our Team

Ngā Kaihautū

  • Daisy Toia

    Director

    Daisy conceived the business in 2003 as a means to provide further support and business opportunities for her family. What initially started out as space for the creation and sale of Toi (Māori artworks) and meeting facilitation services, has grown and developed as a business that is passionate about Education, Toi and Community.

  • Rawiri Toia

    Director

    Rāwiri brings a background in education, facilitation and the Māori performing arts. He has worked with leaders in the field of education in Māori settings and is contracted to support a number of innovating areas in Māori medium education.

Dr. Tabitha McKenzie

Consultant - Education and Research

Tabitha comes to us with a long tertiary career in educational research, programme design and implementation along with 20 years experience on teacher education pedagogy, curriculum design, language development and the design and development of educational resources in te reo Māori. Tabitha has been involved in digital resource design and development including language apps, interactive digital platform resources and understanding the opportunities for gamification and ubiquitous learning.

Tabitha and her husband, Rich, live in Whanganui and have two teenage boys.

Rik Samuels

Consultant - Mātauranga and Tikanga Māori

Rik has extensive experience in the integration of mātauranga Māori in the education landscape, developing and leading language resources for Victoria University of Wellington and Boundream Ltd, the parent company of InDigi Education. Rik also brings a wealth of knowledge from his work in the development of whānau, hapū and iwi as well as leadership at marae and hapū level.

Rik has had significant contributions to the design and development of te reo Māori resources development including music theory programmes for ākonga Māori and the development of digital books in te reo Māori. All of this work involves research activity, translation services and concepts design through a mātauranga Māori lens. His broad knowledge and engagement of mātauranga Māori in a modern context has been at the pointed end of the work. Rik is able to navigate mātauranga from cross-iwi sources which sees him work carefully and respectfully when researching iwi and hapū narratives.

Dani Toia

Consultant - Digital Design and Apparel

Dani leads our digital design and apparel business within the InDigi Brand. Her work has included the design and development of digital assets for the Ministry of Education, along with supporting local businesses with website and content design.

Dani leads our graphic design for InDigi, our unique apparel line that looks to re-imagine, restore and empower indigenous peoples and their culture.

Dani is recently married to Brodie and they have a not-so-little bulldog, Pumba.

She also spends time supporting local youth projects and advocacy work.