Empowering
Indigenous Storytelling
indie | AOTEROA
INDIGENOUS STORIES
THE ORIGIN – LINGOGO
Lingogo began as a personal project I co-founded in response to the importance of keeping Indigenous languages alive. Our original focus was supporting the retention of te reo Māori for learners already on their language journeys, through dual-language e-books that celebrated Māori storytelling and culture. The goal was simple: to create beautiful, accessible content that made language learning feel joyful, familial and culturally connected.
THE EVOLUTION – INDIE
As the project grew, our vision expanded beyond language learning into broader Indigenous storytelling. Lingogo evolved into Indie – The Indigenous Story Collection, a story publishing platform dedicated to showcasing Indigenous writers, artists and creatives across editorial storytelling and creative collaboration.
CREATIVE APPROACH
Across both Lingogo and Indie, our creative direction balanced cultural respect with contemporary design – warm, expressive visuals and a human tone of voice that felt accessible rather than academic or institutional. Storytelling remained central to everything we created, inviting cultural connection through personal narratives, illustration and community collaboration.
WHY IT MATTERS
These projects became formative steps in my own journey of reconnection with culture and community. What began as a passion project evolved into a deeper commitment to supporting Indigenous voices and creating creative spaces rooted in empathy, visibility and cultural pride.
WHAT IT BECAME
The work initiated through Lingogo and Indie laid the foundation for what would eventually grow into the current community platform: Te Arawhata
A culturally grounded newsletter and storytelling space connecting thousands of readers with Māori art, culture and community.
👉 View the continuation of this journey on the Te Arawhata project.
