At the age of 12 Georgia Latu started her own business. Read on to find out how.

When Georgia Latu (Kāi Tahu, Ngāpuhi) was just 12, she started a project on her mum’s Facebook page selling homemade poi.   Four years later, Georgia is the winner of the Young Māori Business Leader Award 2022 and the Blake Leader Award for Rangatahi 2022 for her not-so-small business, Pōtiki Poi.

At the age of 16, Georgia runs the world’s largest poi manufacturing business, employs 30 people at a living wage, and even won a supply contract for the Rugby World Cup this year.   “We were contacted by the Rugby World Cup and they asked us for 2000 poi, and we said ‘We can do it in two weeks’, and they were taken aback and upped the order to 10,000 for the first game, then 22,000, then 27,000.”
“Mum and I were very emotional. It’s the first time something like this happened - normalising and uplifting our Māori taonga - and we were part of that,” she says.

The idea came to Georgia when she was 12 and wanted to go on a trip from her hometown of Dunedin to the North Island. Thinking of ways to raise funds for the trip, Georgia turned to her talent for poi making - and she hasn’t looked back.   Since then, Georgia has won numerous awards including Young Māori Business Leader 2022 at the Aotearoa Māori Business Leaders Awards, and last week she won the BLAKE Leader Award for Rangatahi.  This BLAKE Award for Rangatahi recognises and celebrates a young person aged 13-20 whose leadership creates an impact on a sustainable future for Aotearoa New Zealand.   Earlier in the year, Georgia and her mum Anna Latu, (senior lecturer in Māori health and cultural competence at Otago University) published a book called Ngā Mihi about the whakapapa of poi.  

Whānau plays an important part of the business’s success with family, friends, and the community all coming together to help Georgia meet demand.   “We sent a tono out to our hapori – to our community – to come in and help Pōtiki Poi achieve this crazy order. And through that we’ve been actually able to offer first-time employment to a lot of rangatahi in Ōtepoti, which is also amazing.” Georgia told Radio New Zealand.

So, what does the future hold for such an aspiring young wahine? Georgia is in the process of finishing NCEA Level 2 and plans to achieve University Entrance next year.   Looking further ahead – maybe 10 years from now – Georgia sees herself becoming even more involved with revitalising her culture and preserving Māori taonga, perhaps in the field of tā moko.   “Ever since I was a little girl in kohanga, I’ve always loved everything Māori – arts, weaving, mahi toi, anything Māori I was drawn to.  “I see myself revitalising and being a tā moko artist.   Now that I’m older I realise that’s a huge pool of knowledge that not many people know or tap into, so I want to make sure that doesn’t die like a moa – that it will be revitalised to its fullest potential.”

As for the business, Pōtiki Poi is as strong as ever and has opened the Kura Poi Dance Academy, where Georgia teaches rangatahi and pakeke the art of poi.