Te Whakapapa o ATA: Our Origin Story

The irony of being a business that helps people tell their stories and project their image online is that it can be hard to prioritise doing that for yourself. 

To be fair, we have been pretty busy…

A little snippet of the last two years at ATA

But, there’s so much that we want to share! We’ve learned a lot since we started ATA, as creatives, as entrepreneurs and of course, as partners. As we’ve evolved, so has our vision. We’re on a mission to redefine connection, and we want to bring as many people along on this journey as we can.

Before we talk about where we’re going, I want to share a bit about where we began: the whakapapa of ATA.

The spark

Our story begins in high school. I was boarding at Turakina Māori Girls’ College, and with not much to do on the weekends, I started playing around with an app called Video Star on my iPod, making music videos and uploading them to the ‘new-and-exciting website’ Facebook. Meanwhile, Sonny was boarding at Hato Pāora, where his friends saw my videos and told him, “hey Sonny, this is cool, you should do this” . When he checked them out his reaction was, “man, this kōtiro is cool”, and he started making his own stuff. And the rest is history!

It was 2011 when Sonny and Kiri began producing low-budget videos at school

Not quite. 

We became really good friends and we both liked each other, but we had our own paths to follow.  I headed to Waikato Uni to study Media and Creative Technologies and Sonny went to Auckland Uni to study medicine (for which he did end up graduating with his Diploma in Health Sciences). He hadn’t excelled in the sciences but when he mentioned to a careers advisor that he wanted to pursue a career on Te Karere, they said he needed to find “a serious career”. So there I was at uni, immersed in what I loved, building up my passion for creativity. But Sonny was pushing through, having a really hard time because his heart wasn’t in it.

Then, he got a lifeline.

Someone saw his Hato Pāora videos and offered him a role hosting Hahana, the first rangatahi Māori online series and that launched him into the media world. Meanwhile, I started a photography business and I was exploring different mediums, doing social media and promotions, communications and marketing. I loved running my photography business and realised I didn’t just want to be a creative, I wanted to understand how to run a pakihi. So, I did a Masters in Business Management, which gave me the tools and confidence to dream even bigger.

The spark ignites

I had grown up immersed in te reo Māori - attending kōhanga reo, kura kaupapa, and continuing my studies at University.  But something shifted for me when I attended a kura reo in Ōtaki one weekend. 

The kaiako really knew how to teach with passion, making learning fun and inspiring. Seeing Māori and non-Māori, beginners and advanced speakers all learning together, united by their love for the reo, reignited something in me.

From that point I felt a calling to give back, to use my skills to promote reo Māori. 

I moved to Wellington and worked in the marketing team at Te Wānanga o Raukawa, learning and practicing in a kaupapa-Māori environment alongside my people. I am really grateful for my time there, as many of the principles and values have carried over into the way we run ATA now.

So going back to that calling, it wasn’t long until I was invited to apply for a job at Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori (The Māori Language Commission) and I felt the stars align. 

There, I was given a really special opportunity to transform their digital communications presence. I am really grateful to my Director at the time, who nurtured me and grew my strategic lens. I was not long into working there when COVID-19 hit. One of the first problems we had to solve was how to take Te Wiki o te Reo Māori online. This led to the creation of the Māori Language Moment, which drew a million sign-ups. It's by far one of the most rewarding campaigns I have ever worked on.

Sonny and Kiriana at Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori when the Māori Language Moment campaign won the IPRA (International Public Relations Association) supreme award. (2021)

At the same time, Sonny was working at Te Māngai Pāho, the Māori broadcasting funding agency. We found ourselves collaborating as agencies committed to te reo Māori revitalisation, and Sonny helped us to design and promote the Māori Language Moment.

The golden thread of our relationship was pulling us closer together, weaving our work, our past, and our future into one.

ATA takes shape

Before taking the leap to start ATA, Sonny was a senior consultant at PwC, and I was taking on contracting work. By this point, we’d built experience working in corporate, client services, and navigating professional and government environments. But we were itching to exercise our creative muscles.

I felt that if we wanted to serve our people, we needed to share our skills with more organisations and projects. The only way to do that? Start our own business.

We chose the name ATA because it perfectly reflects our values and the work we do shaping, forming, and projecting an image online. 

ATA

(noun) form, shape, semblance

(noun) reflected image, reflection

So, we worked hard and saved up, launching as a business ready to take on big projects, with an office where we could welcome people.

It was a risk. We invested all our savings to make it happen.

But we knew there was a need for ATA. From our experiences, we saw the demand for Māori-led storytelling, creativity, and innovation - and we knew we could help people connect and grow together through social media.

Developing our superpowers

In the early days of ATA we took on a lot of different kinds of work, but our superpower is really in managing consistent, intentional social media content. 

We know from experience that the expectations placed on social media advisors are unrealistic. The idea that one person can stay on top of every platform, handle creative, strategy, data analysis, and community management? That’s a unicorn.

A really, really hōhā unicorn.

So, ATA helps organisations do more and do it better – whether through training and light support or by providing a team of experts for less than the cost of hiring an advisor.

Along the way, we’ve developed another superpower: client communications. We stay in touch, we deliver when we say we will, and we build great relationships.

Being kind might not seem like a superpower, but to us, it’s essential that we manaaki our clients and people. We want ATA to be a great place to work, and we want to be great people to work with.

Our final superpower? Creativity and innovation.

We have amazing idea generators who are constantly pushing the boundaries and finding new ways of doing things. But consistency and quality always come first.

The future: redefining connection

As ATA has evolved, we’ve developed powerful systems, processes, and ways of working that are transformative.

We’ve grown our knowledge and expertise in impactful, community-led storytelling and creating safe, welcoming digital whare that are empowering and inspiring.

And we’ve developed a vision for redefining connection. We call it, He ATA Rangaranga Hou. We’re excited to share it with you…

Stay tuned! Hoki mai ā kō ake nei.

Shout Outs

• Te Wānanga o Raukawa

• Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, Te Toko and Christine Ammunson -  Te Wā Tuku Reo Māori

• Hahana and Vicki Makutu

• Our parents!

• And everyone who helped along the way. Ngā mihi nui!