@AUTMAORI a creative force
The lead content creator behind the @AUTMAORI Instagram page says the desire to make te reo Māori seen and heard motivates the team to post as often as they can.
Jana Nee, Pou Āwhina ki Waihorotiu, in the Office of Māori Advancement, says @AUTMAORI was initially created in 2020 to make ākonga Māori more aware of the services offered at AUT.
But @AUTMAORI has since become a wider whānui channel with 614 posts and 3,788 followers by tapping into friends, family, businesses and the community.
Jana tells us more about how the team has successfully grown the channel.
What is the purpose of the page?
@AUTMAORI aims to show an authentic representation of what it’s like to be an ākonga Māori at AUT. Future Tauira Māori follow us, so we are showing them that they will be welcomed into a university that prioritises te tiriti and that their culture will be embraced here. We live and breathe te ao Māori values, like whanaungatanga, and have formed strong collaborative relationships with other channels/creators.
How do you decide on the content?
We are very organic with content which often stems from the kaupapa (events) we hold on campus or important times like Matariki and Mahuru Māori. We are usually trying to share a message, so we do that in a relatable way for that audience. Sometimes it's a quick vlog or photos and other times it's a full-on production! It all depends on the impact we want to have. We've done it for five years so we now have an idea of what will connect with our audience.
What was your favourite post to create?
Most definitely the re-make of the Aaria music video in celebration of music month, as we wanted to highlight Waitata Māori. In the video, our ākonga dressed up as the original singers and lip synced their video. We collaborated with Te Mangai Paho and Cinco Cine for that content and similarly did the same with a Marlon Williams song for which we ended up on stage at Spark Arena as his kapa haka and backing vocals.
Who writes/films/edits this content?
The content is a collaborative effort between myself, the pou whatu team and the ākonga who use our service. We all take turns writing and creating it. Most of the time I am behind the camera when we need content such as graduation photos and music videos, but our daily posting and organic content is a team effort. We also ask our ākonga to make their own content that we share. This is part of our ongoing reciprocal relationship in the whānau space.
Who is your target audience?
Our target audience is current ākonga Māori and their whānau and their response has been great. Their whānau also follow along and keep up with what's happening in our spaces. It's also an opportunity for ākonga to get a feel for our spaces before they come and experience it.
What has been your most popular post?
Surprisingly, it was a not-so-serious reel called "Tēpu talk" that we created to show what the conversations are like in the whānau space at times. The humour was relatable and here’s how successful it was:Instagram: 39.3k views, 3107 likes, 55 comments, 556 shares. TikTok: 66.8k views, 9645 likes, 154 comments, 920 saves.