Business Feature

It makes me so excited when I come across businesses like this! I’m always hyped for Christmas and when you see all the presents wrapped up under the tree (or hidden under the bed cause you weren’t supposed to see it yet) it just has that Christmas tingle feeling. This young woman (only 15!!) has started a very innovative business with a relevant product for this festive season. She has written a bit about herself and her business which is below (also how cool is it to play table tennis internationally!).

I encourage you to go have a look and see if you’d see some of your presents wrapped in her awesome designs. Feel free to give her a follow and encourage her on her business journey.

My name is Takaimaania Ngata-Henare. I'm the owner of Māu Designz a Te Reo Māori wrapping paper and gift products business.

I'm 15 years old and am year 11 at school. I started Māu Designz Waitangi day Feb 6 2020. I started this business to help me with my sporting endeavours at the time. I was playing Table Tennis nationally and internationally for NZ which meant I did a lot of traveling.

Due to covid I'm not traveling as much but it's a good thing because my school work load has increased now that I'm in my senior years at college.

For now Māu Designz helps me with my goal to help normalise Te Reo Māori and learn all about business. I came up with the business when my whānau and I were thinking of fundraising for my travels. I was raised in Te Reo Māori and learnt English as the age of 8. I thought about my birthdays and Christmas' where I didn't have Te Reo Māori gift wrapping and decided that I would have loved to have been able to read my wrapping paper. I thought I would give it a go and to date it has been a huge success for me in such a short time.

I look forward to growing my business and including other products to my range.