For the people of the land

Throughout the English-speaking world, there is a growing acceptance that indigenous design can play an important role in creating more representative brands. Jack Cousins reports on how this is being achieved.

Many hundreds of years ago on the island of Hawaiki, said to be the ancestral homeland of the Polynesians, all was not well. Bitter inter-tribal conflicts left those in charge with no choice but to seek new lands. Among those who participated in the great voyage, venturing across the Pacific Ocean in a waka (canoe) named Arawa, was Tia, a man who would become a famed explorer of Aotearoa (New Zealand). 

Eventually docking at the Bay of Plenty, Tia travelled inland along the Waikato River and had many adventures throughout the North Island that became a staple of Māori tradition. Among these is the tale of discovering Lake Taupō, a large body of water formed in a volcanic caldera. After noticing the resemblance between his rain cloak and the oddly shaped and coloured cliff face, Tia named the place Taupō-nui-a-Tia (The Great Cloak of Tia). The word Taupō stuck, and the popular tourist town north-east of the lake still bears that name today.

Stories like these make up the rich tapestry of Māori oral history that then inform identity, place names and, increasingly, modern branding. For New Zealand-based branding agency Principals, incorporating culturally valuable and layered stories such as these into its work has become standard practice.

But, as strategy director Tom Sykes explains, achieving this requires more than good intentions. "You can't assume you have the knowledge to interpret cultural stories on your own,” he says. “Partnership is essential."

It’s a lesson learnt in one project he recalls, where an early version of a design, with similar aesthetics to the final version, was rejected by a designer from the local iwi (tribe), who joked that this version was "more appropriate two tribes over." It's one of the many reasons Principals embeds collaboration with indigenous designers, advisors and communities into every project where culture plays a role.

[Hamilton Airport's updated identity by Principals better reflects its role as both a transportation hub and a cultural symbol]

Branding for tangata whenua

One of the reasons brand agencies like Principals are so careful to weave Māori design aesthetics and stories into their work stems from a “growing acceptance,” as Sykes describes it, of the Treaty of Waitangi throughout the country. The document, signed in 1840 by the British Crown and North Island Māori chiefs, has been of crucial significance to the treatment of the indigenous population for nearly two centuries. While highly contentious – as recently as April 2025, attempts to reinterpret the treaty were trounced in the New Zealand Parliament – people generally see the document as an acceptance of the nation’s biculturalism.

Another interesting layer to the story that Sykes, a South African native, has noticed in his seven years of working in New Zealand, is that there hasn’t been an overswing to “Maorify” everything as a means of righting past wrongs. Referring to Principals’ recent work with regional tourism organisation Destination Great Lakes Taupō, he says, “It’s really for the people of the land to see themselves in it – in a way that’s universal enough for someone from, say, Sweden to find easily navigable as a brand.”

Another example of Principals’ bicultural design in practice comes in the form of Poronui, a luxury sporting lodge nestled in the Taharua Valley, not far from Lake Taupō. Being slightly unusual for a luxury lodge in New Zealand to have a Māori name, Principals was called on to make the brand even more representative of the local culture and natural heritage.

Sykes hastens to add that the project wasn’t about leveraging Māori aesthetics to appeal to the lodge’s predominantly American visitors. Instead, it was first and foremost about representing tangata whenua (people of the land) in a manner that simultaneously adds cultural immersion for guests.

The Principals team was guided by Tom Loughlin, a senior member of the local Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi. He talked to them about whakapapa, a central Māori concept that refers to people’s lineage and their connection with forebears, ancestral lands and tribes. This fed well into the new brand idea and tagline, ‘part of something bigger,’ that was inspired by the lodge’s name (‘poro’ and ‘nui’ respectively translating to ‘part of’ and ‘great’).

Working in tandem with a Māori designer and storyteller, Principals set about crafting an identity deeply rooted in the valley itself. Arguably the updated brand’s most striking aesthetic, its stark red ochre colour was inspired by both old and new buildings found at Poronui, as well as the deer and fish that guests can hunt and catch. The navy blue was drawn from the nearby Mohaka River, while the green reflects the colour of the native bush found on the hills.

Also taking cues from the architecture found on-site, the new logomark evokes the care and comfort Poronui hopes to make guests feel when staying with them. The logo’s typography, meanwhile, was crafted based on carvings found inside the Red Hut, a small structure used by shepherds, fishers and hikers over the past century.

For all branding agencies around the world, the hope is that a clever strategy and striking design – such as the Poronui project – will lead to a financially better outcome for the client in the long run. While that is still very much the case for Principals, Sykes explains that, when trying to represent an indigenous community like the Ngāti Tūwharetoa, the process itself is as important as the project’s results. “If iwi have not been a key part of the journey, you'll never get buy-in. That’s not to say there will be any negative action towards the brand, it will just be slightly ignored,” he adds.

Design and reconciliation

In another part of Australasia, similar questions have been raised about the relationship between indigenous populations and wider society. In 2023, the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum was held, in which advocates for an alteration to the Australian Constitution sought to create a formal body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to advise on laws. While the proposition was vigorously quashed, it brought Australia’s indigenous population to the centre of the country’s collective consciousness. But for some in the corporate and design sphere, they have been thinking about these issues for a long time.

Leigh Harris is the founder and creative director at ingeous studios, an indigenous design and digital creative agency based in Cairns, Queensland. For over two decades, Harris – himself of Aboriginal, Italian and Welsh heritage – has attempted to reimagine what indigenous design could be.

“When I started ingeous studios, it was about reinvigorating what indigenous design was,” Harris explains. “At that time, it was typified by using red, black and yellow colours based on the Aboriginal flag, and kangaroo paws or horseshoe shapes – I suppose some people think that’s representative of indigenous culture. I wanted to change that.”

Even now in 2025, Harris believes there is still a lot of misrepresentation of indigenous culture that he tries to steer clear of, often driven by the international art market. For instance, design elements based on Aboriginal dot paintings have become highly popularised but, as Harris points out, they are specifically tied to Central and Western Desert culture. He instead tries to build on that and leverage new aesthetics when crafting the design for brands.

A quintessential example of ingeous studios’ work comes in the form of Wuchopperen Health Services, an organisation that provides primary health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the greater Cairns region. With the charity facing issues of appealing to young people, Harris set about evolving the identity such that it was more stylised and vibrant.

A particular emphasis was placed on revising the colour system, as seen in the new Wuchopperen logo. Each colour is representative of that which the organisation serves (men, women, elders, youth and culture), and surround the outline of the ‘health figure’ retained from the old design. Adding the colourful branding to its fleet of vehicles made Wuchopperen far harder to ignore. The rejuvenation worked a treat, with a 120% uptick in patients coming through its doors since the relaunch.

Harris says, “The brand is more authentic now and doesn’t waver from who it represents. Previously it was a bit confusing, but now it says something very substantial and delivers a message to the community.”

Alongside more conventional branding projects, ingeous studios also offers reconciliation design services. A reconciliation action plan is a commitment by organisations to help build stronger relationships with the indigenous population and atone for historical wrongs. Harris crafts authentic and culturally rich visuals for these documents that help drive change.

One of the approximately 120 he has designed over the years was for Catholic Education – Diocese of Cairns, a project which was over three years in the making. Amongst other pledges, the document lays out a commitment to increasing student enrolment and employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The identity crafted by Harris needed to unify each of its 29 schools in the Far North Queensland region, while also fostering engagement and creativity amongst its students.

Acting as a reminder of each school’s commitment to reconciliation, the project saw the creation of ‘Acknowledgement icons’ that were made by both indigenous and non-indigenous students. Ingeous studios then took the children’s rough sketches and fine-tuned them to sit alongside the schools’ original emblems. These are to be used during celebratory occasions including Reconciliation Week, and now offer an extension of each school’s identity that reflects indigenous culture.

Projects like this underline Harris’ belief in the importance of working with young people to broaden their horizons on indigenous design and its possibilities. He also runs Indigenous Design Labs, an endeavour that aims to inspire youngsters from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds to join the digital and creative design industries.

While Australia might be the only ex-British colony without a treaty with its indigenous people, it is clear attitudes are changing. Harris agrees: “Organisations are coming to me for the rejuvenation of their logos, and they specifically ask there to be an indigenous kick to them. What I try to deliver is something that is still recognisable as their brand but embeds indigenous elements. Ten years ago, I would have never heard of this, but now large corporations are thinking about these sorts of things, which is great.”

Uniting through storytelling

Even on the other side of the world in the US, brand agencies are being confronted with similar dilemmas of how to create culturally sensitive yet powerful design on behalf of American Indians and Alaska Natives. This was just the task that faced the New York office of global design consultancy Elmwood, which was entrusted to rethink the identity of indigenous-led healthcare organisation Indigenous Pact.

Founded in 2017, the public benefit corporation was set up by Kurt Brenkus and his wife, Aimee, after experiencing first-hand what he describes as the “egregious” disparities in healthcare quality between the indigenous and non-indigenous population. Brenkus and his wife – herself a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, a Native American tribe – suffered the traumatising experience of their newly born son being denied specialist care, which he blames on systematic inequality. Thankfully their son survived, but later on the family had further issues finding healthcare for their adopted nephews. Because the youngsters were not living on the reservation they were born, it meant the nearest usable facility was over 500 miles away.

Brenkus explains, “I was told the best I could do was call another tribe to see if they could provide the healthcare, but the two I contacted said they don’t see non-enrolled tribal members. It was like a lightbulb moment where I realised this was fundamentally a broken system.

“I was in a unique position of being an entrepreneur and knowing how the healthcare system works at a granular level. I looked at my wife and said, ‘If we have all of this knowledge, shouldn’t we be doing something to help our people?’ It was a pretty easy decision.”

From there, Indigenous Pact was formed with the mission of creating health equity for American Indians and Alaska Natives by connecting tribal nations through its supportive healthcare infrastructure. Its previous brand design, while decidedly fun with a bald eagle featured in the logomark, felt too generic. It also failed to account for the cultural nuances that exist between the 574 federally recognised tribes that Indigenous Pact forms contracts with. The new design by Elmwood would have to address these differences between tribes while still finding a way to make them feel united.

Like Principals, Elmwood felt it essential to involve tribal members throughout the entire process. “We don't have any indigenous people here in the New York studio,” says Emma Godfrey, managing director at Elmwood, “so I think we were even more aware that it was important to do this in partnership and collaboration.”

The research phase that followed involved extensive conversations with stakeholders, with a view to developing a more purpose-led mission that would seep into the design itself. Shifting from the sovereignty of tribal nations to evoking a sense of solidarity, Elmwood centred the new visual identity around quiltwork – a practice considered an important indigenous artform in the US. The clever design system allows for the colours and shapes to be manipulated at will, meaning it is then easy to represent the geographic range of tribes – from coast to woodland to desert – and their cultural differences.

The primary purple colour, however, was chosen due to its deep resonance with the Oneida Tribe. Brenkus says this stems from the purple hue found inside the abalone shell, which is used in the creation of culturally significant wampums (shell beads that can be pieced together to make belts and jewellery). This then made the accompanying black and white photography of Native Americans from all across the country even more striking.

Despite the rebrand’s undoubted success – Brenkus reports an “immediate resonance” with tribal leaders – there was an awkward initial phase that needed to be overcome.

“There were disclaimers in our presentation that we were very conscious about making sure our work was culturally appropriate,” says Godfrey. “We explained we were learning throughout this process, and I think that transparency between the teams was really important.”

“I remember it was a little nerve-wracking,” admits Brenkus. “We were hiring a firm from New York that has no indigenous background to come in and create this brand identity. We had worked with indigenous-led firms prior to that, so this was a risk for us.” But it was all smiles in the end, with Brenkus adding how impressed he was at the new identity’s cultural specificity – he considers this a feat even for indigenous designers.

Across New Zealand, Australia, the US and many other nations colonised by Britain, there can be little doubt indigenous design has become a prominent tool for brands to appeal to the native population by telling their stories in an authentic manner. Indeed, in the case of New Zealand, indigenous design has, to a large degree, integrated itself into the branding process to meet the needs of what the brand design industry considers to be a bicultural nation. So, what does this ultimately do for countries that take it seriously?

“I think you can get very philosophical about these sorts of things,” says Sykes. “I just think life is more interesting with more perspectives in it. Every time we do a branding project at Principals that's bicultural, it gets to a much more interesting space.

“There are good moral reasons to uphold the Treaty of Waitangi,” he adds, “but I think from a commercial perspective it also makes brands richer and more engaging.”

This article was taken from Transform magazine Q2, 2025. You can subscribe to the print edition here.