Ako For Niños

Ako For Niños (‘education for children’) is an animation project which aims to help integrate Latin American Tauiwi (refugees and migrants) settled in Aotearoa New Zealand. The project has approached this goal through the introduction of some key principles of Tikanga Māori (Māori principles and values), community participation, and audiovisual storytelling. Tauiwi were given a list of definitions of Tikanga on social media, and prompted to write a children’s tale based on one of these values in their native language. Three winning stories were selected, then adapted into entertaining animations conveying the Tikanga in engaging ways for young audiences and their families.

I worked on the project as a producer, project manager, and designer, collaborating closely with the director funders, and production team to deliver the three episodes.

One of the episodes, ‘King Tupac’, has been selected as part of the Show Me Shorts International short film festival and as a semi-finalist in the AniMate international animation festival.

A massive thank you to ALACINC NZ and Foundation North for sponsoring the creation of this kaupapa, and the Latin American community in Aotearoa for participating in the production of this narrative, and the amazing team who helped to put this together.