WOMEN OF THE ISLANDS - QIANE MATATA-SIPU

QIANE MATATA-SIPU 

QIANE MEDIA & PHOTOGRAPHY, ARTIST, SOCIAL ACTIVIST & FOUNDER/CREATOR of NUKU 

COOK ISLANDS / MAORI 

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I was born and raised in the coolest multi-cultural, village-metropolis of Māngere. My family is from Ihumātao, of Te Waiohua ki Te Ahiwaru and Te Akitai, Waikato-Tainui and Ngā Puhi whakapapa, and from Rarotonga (Arorangi) and Mangaia (Temakatea, Oneroa). For 12 years I have worked across media as a journalist and photographer and, as a communications consultant. For the past 7 years I have run my business, Qiane Media + Photography working across this industry. I’m also an artist, passionate social activist (co-founding the Protect Ihumātao SOUL with 5 of my cousins to protect our whenua from development) and the founder and creator of NUKU.

My life wouldn’t be anything without my amazing family. My husband is a proud Tongan and we have been together 16 years this December.  We are parents to a gorgeous, head-strong almost 2 year old! 

I am staunch South Auckland, it is the place that moulded me into the woman I am today. Recently I was asked what my mau is, my purpose, and in thinking about the answer I realised my purpose in life is to tell the stories of marginalised peoples to amplify their voices and change the narrative for future generations. So that is what drives me in everything I now do. 

You've recently started a multi media series for and about kickass indigenous women called NUKU - what inspired you to start the series?

The stories we tell literally make the world. If you want to change the world, you need to change your story. I truly believe that we each need to leave this world better than we found it. If we aren’t actively creating goodness, creating positive change, then what are we doing? Specialising in topics of identity, culture, social change, environment, and women and, having grown up around strong indigenous women, I quickly learned growing up that indigenous women are at the bottom of the privilege ladder. Our stories weren’t being told, our opinions in social and political commentary weren’t being included.  I wanted to celebrate and amplify our voices, our stories, our identities.

The art of storytelling was instilled in me from childhood. At 2 years old my nana recorded an interview with me on cassette tape, we shared about our day before finishing our talk with a range of songs. So I’ve basically been a storyteller for ages, lol. I had the idea to create a magazine a few years ago, and I had shared the idea with my nana, she was so excited. But then she passed away really suddenly and unexpectedly. It turned my life on its side for a while. During that period of losing her, and still yearning for our baby (we had suffered through infertility issues), I was questioning who I was as a woman, as a Māori, Pasifika wahine in Aotearoa, and who and what shaped me. Also questioning what I wanted to do with my life and what impact I was meant to be making on the world. When we miraculously fell pregnant (naturally) with our daughter, the ideas around a magazine came back, but different. Better. Not long after Haeata te Kapua was born, the idea for NUKU grew. The name, derived from Papatūānuku the ultimate female essence, came to me so easily. I decided it wasn't going to be a product that people picked up and threw away, but something accessible, meaningful, a creative and social impact storytelling platform to connect, guide, entertain, inspire and share collective wisdom. I fully credit my baby for bringing NUKU into te ao marama with her. 

NUKU is inspired by the amazing vaine in my life; my nana, my mum, my daughter. Utilising multimedia platforms, this non-profit passion project profiles kickass indigenous women doing things differently. Women who don’t conform to a mainstream image, but who instead carve their own unique path, sharing the stories of their journey along the way. Through podcast, photography, video, and eventually a book and exhibition, it transforms thinking, transfers knowledge across generations and uncovers layers to cultural identities. 

NUKU invites women to look at the world through a different lens, one made by and made for, indigenous women. 

Click here for her #Nuku100 audio/visual series and meet 100 kickass indigenous women doing things differently

What were the pathways that led you to what you're doing now?

When I left high school I went on to study a Bachelor of Communications Degree at AUT. In my third year I did an extended major in journalism and interned with a few different magazines and newspapers to gain experience and contacts within the industry. My first job was with Mana Magazine before becoming the deputy editor at SPASIFIK Magazine (at 25 years old). That feels like a lifetime ago now. Back then I was teaching myself photography (and shooting for media) alongside writing, editing, selling advertising and doing magazine production. I did some freelance work with government and advertising agencies while holding down my full-time jobs, and took as many opportunities as possible to grow my skills and experience. When I left to start my own business I had built up a good body of work, a good reputation in the industry and had a really good understanding of how to pull it all together. I had no idea about business, but I took the risk anyway. 

From a photography perspective I was shooting anything and everything, just to build up my skills and client base. I eventually learned that I loved documentary photography most, learned what I didn’t love, and locked in I wanted to do more of, so began to create a business and art practice based on those things. 

I have since worked with big and small companies across New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific, I have exhibited here in Aotearoa and as far abroad as Cambodia and China and, I have been published in a few books. Studying is one thing, but meeting people, building relationships, growing your skill base, taking risks and backing yourself are what help you get to that next level. 

How has being a Polynesian impacted your life and work?

At 17, in my final year of school, we had a relief careers teacher. She sat me down for the mandatory “where will you go after finishing school” meeting. Back then the internet was in its early stages so we had this thick book with a blue cover that listed all the careers you could think of, details about them, the education you needed, and the salary bands. I flicked the pages to ‘Journalist’ and told her that was where I was heading. She looked at me, a young Māori/Cook Islands woman from a low socio-economic community, attending a Decile 1 school, and said: “That's the hardest degree to get into at AUT, you might want to choose something else.” That day I learnt about classism, sexism and racism. I also found the fire my ancestors lit inside me and I set out to prove myself right. (‘Cause I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of thinking her opinion mattered enough for me to try and prove her wrong). At Uni I was one of very few Polynesians studying the Communications Degree and the hardest thing was finding where I fit. 

Funnily enough I vowed to never work in ethnic media, back then I didn’t want to be ‘typecast’, you could say. But the universe had other plans and when I got the job at Mana, the leading Māori magazine in New Zealand at the time, I got the best education in the industry. There I realised the importance of telling our stories, and telling them well. I became a specialist in Māori and Pacific storytelling, using my own background to better connect with our people, and get access to stories others couldn’t. Having intimate knowledge of our culture, heritage, knowledge systems and the issues facing our people either living in post-colonisation, or living in diaspora, meant I could get deeper into the stories. 

Having grown up in and around my marae (Makaurau Marae, Ihumātao) my entire life, I learnt governance from a really young age. I have been attending marae meetings since I was 8 years old, discussing local politics and fighting for my papakainga, our history and our environment, my entire life. These experiences have given me special, and diverse skills, that you can only get by having this lived experience. 

Being Polynesian has given me strong values, and has kept me grounded. As an indigenous woman I am privileged to have instilled in me the love and protection of our natural environments, the spiritual connections with all our atua, the teachings of our indigenous values and systems and, the education of the western system to help me see the stark differences, and want to create change.

What do you think is unique about our Pacific & indigenous story telling?

Our storytelling started in the stars and has been passed down orally for generations. It speaks to our natural environment and all that lives within it. Our identities of who we are and how we came to be have been handed down this way and, such storytelling has become the blueprint for how we should live our lives. Our stories show us aspirations for our people to thrive, not just survive, so looking back to those stories help us learn the lessons for our future decisions. Our storytelling is rich and comes in all forms, particularly through our arts in weaving, carvings, tatau and tā moko. Polynesians have the best stories, because our stories can start with just an explanation of a name, that then takes us back to a time of Kings, of voyagers, of warriors. 

What have been your biggest successes as well as your biggest challenges?

My greatest success is my daughter. Having a baby was difficult to say the least (we were together 14 years before she came along and underwent all kinds of treatment options over a six year period), so to have her happy and healthy, earth side with us is my greatest achievement. She trumps all the awards I’ve won, all the awesome projects I’ve been able to work on, and all the social justice I’ve ever fought for.    

One of my biggest life challenges is still currently taking place. It is the fight to protect our whenua at Ihumātao from development. We are coming into 5 years since my cousins and I co-founded the campaign to protect our papakainga from ongoing encroachment and destruction, and have faced a myriad of challenges along the way. In the beginning we were labelled so many things, ‘young rebels’, ‘dole bludgers’, ‘rangatahi’ without the true understanding that the six of us were/are all career professionals, parents, home owners, and had started and continued our campaign with a depth of knowledge and support guided by the advice of our kaumatua and kuia, our grandparents, parents, whanau, marae and hapū. A campaign as big as this takes a lot out of you, but you learn really quickly to juggle. From protest and legal actions, to thousands of words written in letters to politicians, meetings after meetings with different people and organisations, planning strategies, working on negotiations, speaking to media, formatting messaging, as well as trying to help people understand the greater picture of why this campaign is so important, while still combatting modern day racism and colonisation. Juggling all that with being a wife and māmā, a business owner, active exhibiting artist and trying to run a passion project, can mean life gets a bit crazy at times! 

What do you love about being a Pacific or Indigenous woman today?

Empowered indigenous women are the drivers of change, constantly cultivating opportunities to shape the world we want. I am so privileged to be a descendant of Polynesia where we have had some of the most phenomenal indigenous women lead our people and our nations. Today, I get to live in a time where we are seeing women create positive change in their families, communities, hapū, villages, schools, workplaces, industries and countries, it is so wonderful to witness. We are fighting for indigenous and land rights, for environmental protection, for the wellbeing of children, for equality. We are walking in multiple worlds, the past and the present, the indigenous and the western; standing as strong, powerful, fearless warriors. We are disrupting systems and resetting the narrative for our future generations. I wouldn’t want to be descended from anyone else! 

Check out the Nuku: Stories of 100 Indigenous Women book & where to purchase the book here and check out what Qiane is up to via her facebook & instagram