March 14, 2024
Indigenous distributor found through Marvel dub
The managing director of Māori-owned technology company Kiwa Digital says Indigenous groups are increasingly turning to Kiwa’s post-production tools to dub popular film and television shows into their native languages.
Steve Renata is off to the United States where Kiwa has appointed Grey Willow Music and Production Studios, based on the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, to represent its VoiceQ software to native American and Indigenous markets.
Grey Willow used VoiceQ to dub the 2012 Marvel Avengers movie into Lakota language, which it is showcasing at the RES 2024 economic summit in Las Vegas this month.
He says Indigenous groups are embracing all aspects of media.
“I’m excited to think about how Maori and Indigenous can grow within the industry and have lots of different jobs and in our case be the actual developers and owners and distributors of technology so lots of opportunities and you’ve just got to keep your eye on the ball and whatever you do, don’t blink,” Mr Renata says.
While Kiwa’s current thrust is the Pacific rim, there are also other opportunities opening up including in Africa where there is a huge amount of language dubbing to be done.