Air New Zealand highlights Māori culture and values in new safety video via Flying Fish
As New Zealand reopens to the world, Araraurangi Air New Zealand has launched a new safety video via Flying Fish, and this time it’s the story of the Tiaki Promise. A promise that encourages both New Zealanders and international visitors to care for our place, our culture and our people.
The story follows Tiaki, a young man who boards a waka rererangi (flying canoe) and sets off on an adventure across Aotearoa. With the help of Air New Zealand and Julie (a character that embodies the rest of New Zealand), he visits four Māori guardians including Papatūānuku (the land), Tangaroa (sea), Tāne Mahuta (forest) and Ranginui (sky). Along the way he seeks advice from these guardians on how better to look after them.
Air New Zealand general manager brand and marketing Jeremy O’Brien says as people start to return to Aotearoa, this safety video is an invitation to them to act as guardians while they’re here: “We want tourism to build back better than it was before and part of that is to share with our visitors a sense of kaitiaki – to encourage them to act like guardians of our country. Our safety videos are world renowned and through them, we have an opportunity to educate and inspire ourselves, our customers and Aotearoa on the importance of Tiaki and everything it stands for. It’s about being good hosts, and good visitors.
“Julie’s character in the safety video is there to show that caring for New Zealand isn’t something Tiaki can do alone. It requires all of us to follow the Promise and commit to protecting Aotearoa for future generations to come.
“I’d like to thank Pou Tikanga and storyteller, Joe Harawira, New Zealand Māori Tourism and the New Zealand Māori Arts & Crafts Institute for guiding us, right from concept to the building of the waka, and the cultural formalities we followed throughout. The collaborative effort has helped us share this story and the principles of Tiaki authentically.”
The airline worked closely with the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute to design the waka and its carvings. From there it was taken to the various filming locations and flown on wires to create real shadows and textures for post-production.
Cutting-edge LED stage screens, used in The Mandalorian TV series, helped to bring the legends of Māori culture to life, and it was this motion technology that created a seamless shift from the real world to the fantastical.
Tiaki and the Guardians will be rolled out across Air New Zealand’s international and domestic fleet from Monday, 9 May 2022.
Production Company: Flying Fish
10 Comments
We’ve all been there.
Safety videos take so bloody long nowadays I just tune out after about 30 secs. The Qantas one is just as bad, if not worse – goes foreverrrrrrrrrr. They would be 10x more effective if they were short, sharp and direct. Y’know, a safety video about safety.
hui ywwwH
The labour mantra of shoving te reo down everyone’s throat’s continues.
Still, great to see Vision Thing rip this account from True – couldn’t happen to a nicer agency.
I wish i’d worked on this!
fun
I thought it was gonna be boring at the start. But what a great showcase of our beautiful country ❤️
I’m so conflicted. Using sacred Maori culture and their Gods for a flight announcement feels very much like cultural appropriation. But at the same time, shouldn’t the Gods be heard and integrated into life? You would never get this up in Australia. Secret business should, and rightfully does, remain the property of our First Nations.
Far too long. This is an airline the NZ tax payers bailed out. What did this cost I wonder? Stick to the safety points only.