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Opening the ‘magical box’ for one and all

An O¯ tautahi man found his purpose and passion in a stroke of luck when his father brought home a computer. Now he tells Maxine Jacobs he’s using his skills to uplift his community, one person at a time.

Growing up in Aranui in the 80s, Hori Te Ariki Mataki, 38, and his family lived pay cheque to pay cheque.

His parents ran a Ma¯ tua

Wha¯ ngai family home, taking in tamariki Ma¯ ori who were in state care.

‘‘Make them feel welcome,’’ Mataki’s parents told his 5-yearold self. ‘‘Show them aroha and share with them; we have more than they do.’’

Across the suburb there were families like his living in socioeconomic hardship. Their options felt limited.

But that changed for Mataki when his teacher introduced the class to the wonders of the worldwide web. ‘‘I remember my teacher saying: ‘This is the internet, this is revolutionary,’ and I thought, ‘What is the internet?’ None of us know what that meant.’’

It marked the start of his journey into a career that he loves.

An avid illustrator for as long as he can remember, his creativity was spurred on when his father brought home a computer in 1998.

This was before the law could keep up with pirated material, so he and his brother would download platforms that would normally cost thousands of dollars, like Photoshop, for free, and hone their skills creating anything they put their minds to. ‘‘It was like having this magical box in our house,’’ Mataki said.

Even via dial-up, the internet opened up the world, and Mataki threw himself in. His love of art and computers led him to design school – a place his father thought was a waste of time.

Everyone around him was a labourer, getting into sports or studying te reo Ma¯ ori. Learning about computers was the last thing on their minds.

But Mataki knew this was his ticket to financial freedom. ‘‘I just wanted to prove to everyone if you really have the right mindset you can do it.’’

He wanted to make sure he never had to worry about his pay cheque, so he took a few papers on finance because, he said, the best way to make money is to know money.

Rather than turning to exhibitions like his classmates, he began freelancing as a te ao Ma¯ ori designer, earning his first $100 in a competition designing a toi Ma¯ ori logo for the Aranui Community Trust Incorporated Society.

‘‘I looked around and thought, ‘I am the only Ma¯ ori who’s here doing toi Ma¯ ori, I’m like a unicorn,’ so I used that to find a way to leverage my skills. I started to become really popular among our tribes and our government agencies.’’

By 2007, he was so popular he launched his business Ariki Creative, which has gone on to be one of the most successful kaupapa Ma¯ ori graphic design organisations in Aotearoa. He’d also married, bought a house, was raising children, and was earning more than enough money to support his family.

But something was missing. He understood it had been a stroke of luck that afforded him the chance to take on the digital space at a young age. But other parents across Aotearoa weren’t able to introduce their children to the digital world and many were still living without knowing how computers could change their lives.

‘‘I was earning about $500,000 a year as an individual freelancer, but I felt really guilty that people around me, and the people I grew up with, were still working cheque to cheque,’’ Mataki said.

‘‘My friends at school, they were just as smart and just as talented, but they’ve only just started touching a computer.

‘‘I always thought back to my parents when they were running that family home. They wanted the best for them [the children], but they didn’t have the tools. I do. That probably set the foundations for the internships.’’

When Mataki realised he could teach others how to use their strengths to build their careers in the digital world, he began taking on interns to show them new opportunities they may not have realised could be career paths.

The first intern he took on was Morgan Mathews.

She was a single mother working out of her home in 2015 when Mataki asked her to help him with his workload.

Since the internship she’s gone on to become kaihautu¯ of Kaitiaki Studios, Mataki said.

‘‘I thought, ‘If I can do it for one person, I can do it for others’. Interns arrive as beginners and are given the opportunity to explore their wildest out-of-thebox originality and bring them

to life.’’ With supported funding from Te Puni Ko¯ kiri, Mataki has taken on 25 interns since 2015. Nine of them continue to work for Ariki Creative.

But that wasn’t enough. Helping people once they were able to work in the industry was good, but almost too late. ‘‘There could be other kids out there who don’t have a computer and don’t know the opportunities they could have.’’

Mataki wanted to show tamariki the wonders he experienced as a child so partnering with Kura Kaupapa across Christchurch, tamariki take classes at Ariki Creative, fuelling their creative fires like

‘I looked around and thought, ‘I am the only Ma¯ori who’s here doing toi Ma¯ori, I’m like a unicorn,’ so I used that to find a way to leverage my skills.’ HORI TE ARIKI MATAKI

his father fuelled his.

‘‘I look at the kids and I can see myself in them,’’ Mataki said.

‘‘I want them to know that they can do it. If kids never get exposed or have the chance to use devices, how can they get passionate?’’

In our summer Super Normal series

is profiling Kiwis with extraordinary backstories. Do you know a super normal who we should talk to? Email sundayeditor@stuff.co.nz.

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2022-01-23T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-23T08:00:00.0000000Z

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