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Ihumātao photographer Qiane Matata Sipu is sharing her work with a wider audience through global giant The Walt Disney company.
She was invited to contribute work to Disney's Dream Big, Princess Photo Exhibition, in which photographers from around the world celebrate real-life women and girls.
The results were unveiled at last week's Power of Inclusion summit in Auckland on diversity and inclusion in the screen industry.
She saw it was a great opportunity to highlight the work of indigenous kōhine and kōtiro.
She shot spoken work poetry collective Ngā Hinepūkōrero on Pīha Beach, wearing kākahu and pounamu designed by Kiri Nathan.
"What I really wanted to do was portray them exactly as they are; strong, indigenous young women who have something to say and are not afraid to say it. So the image of them is powerful, it's shot on a wild west coast beach and they are really strong and very staunch in their pose because that is who they are. It was a freezing cold afternoon to shoot them and they did really really well," Matata-Sipu says.
The other subject, photographed at a waterfall in the Waitakere Ranges, was He subjects were 7-year-old Mereana Wairua, who with her mum has a business turning old bike inner tubes into raukura earrings.
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