Two organisations, one shared mahi.

What this partnership actually is.

We formed our rangapū in 2023. Not a merger. Not one agency absorbing another. A dual-leadership structure that preserves what each organisation is, while creating something neither could do alone.

We hold each other accountable. We share the credit. We share the responsibility. We live the Tiriti-dynamic practice we teach — in how we work together, not just in what we say about it.

A real and fearless Tiriti-dynamic relationship that preserves the mana motuhake of both agencies while amplifying our strengths as a single rōpū. — Te Awanui Reeder

A Māori-owned design agency.

Big River Creative is an award-winning design agency based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. The rōpū specialises in Māori and Pasifika storytelling, weaving mātauranga Māori, expert creativity and service to hapori into everything they do.

Te Awanui Reeder — Awa — leads Big River Creative. He's an APRA Silver Scroll and APRA Maioha award-winning songwriter, former frontman of Polynesian supergroup Nesian Mystik, a strategic storyteller working at the intersection of mātauranga Māori, marketing, and technology, and co-founder of Koha — the kaupapa Māori fintech platform supporting whānau, kura, iwi and hapū.

With Tim, Awa has co-authored Tiriti-Dynamic Social Marketing in the Journal of Social Marketing, and contributed (alongside lead author Brooke Hayward and Patricia Vermillion Peirce) to Whānau first — a culturally responsive evaluation of the F.A.S.T. stroke campaign. Awa also writes for Hemisphere on the craft of Māori storytelling — see Decoding Pūrākau.

Whakapapa: Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngā Pōtiki, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Kahungunu.

Strategy, research, and the published framework.

Hemisphere is a Tiriti-dynamic strategic agency with offices in Te Whanganui-a-Tara and Tauranga Moana. The rōpū works across government, commercial and NGO clients, holds All-of-Government contracts, and delivers integrated campaigns at national scale.

Dr Tim Antric — Kairātaki — leads Hemisphere. A Yorkshire-born tāngata Tiriti, Tauiwi by whakapapa and Tyke by upbringing, Tim has lived in Aotearoa since 2001. He holds a PhD in Business Futures and Leadership, an MMS (Hons) in Social Enterprise, and brings experience in non-profit governance and leadership, public health leadership, and social marketing research. He sits on the management committee of the Australian Association of Social Marketing. Read more in his Hemisphere story, Meet Tim Antric.

Tim co-authored the SWEET² framework during his time at Bay of Plenty District Health Board, since adopted by health providers across Aotearoa. With Awa, he has co-authored Tiriti-Dynamic Social Marketing in the Journal of Social Marketing, and contributed (alongside lead author Brooke Hayward and Patricia Vermillion Peirce) to Whānau first — a culturally responsive evaluation of the F.A.S.T. stroke campaign.

What we've learned, walking this together.

We've been on this journey together for years. One tāngata whenua, one tāngata Tiriti, doing this mahi alongside each other. Getting things wrong. Repairing. Building trust in the ways trust gets built — slowly, in the open, with mistakes named honestly.

What we offer through Tiriti-dynamic leadership isn't theory. It's what we've learned in the doing — what works, what doesn't, what costs more than you'd expect, what gives back more than you'd think.

We share it because other leaders are walking the same road and could use the company.

This isn't just two organisations and two people.

Around our rangapū sit the full creative, strategic, and operational teams of both Hemisphere and Big River Creative. When you engage with this kaupapa, you get the depth of two organisations — designers, strategists, researchers, facilitators, producers — all working in service of the mahi.

Different engagements call on different tāngata. That's part of how this works.