Tāpapa Store, The Brothers Green, Kōaka, Original Canvas, and Ritual & Rise (launching soon) are five incredible brands all created and managed by the same team, with a mission to eliminate chronic disease using hemp.
Which of your brands came first and how did each evolve?
Each brand has evolved through natural progression towards our goal of eliminating chronic disease.
We started with The Brothers Green selling hemp food products at the Christchurch Farmers Market. With hemp’s anti-inflammatory properties and our pharmacy background, we developed Kōaka to showcase hemp’s incredible skin healing properties.
Hemp’s fibre produces a strong and anti-fungal fabric. We started the journey to find everyday hemp clothes and along the way discovered how much better hemp fabric is for our environment and our skin. We created Original Canvas to provide an accessible option for natural, sustainable everyday clothing.
Tell us about Tāpapa Store and why is this such a unique space?
Tāpapa Store houses all our hemp brands under the one roof. It is also an educational and social meeting place where whānau can come together.
Could you give us a sneaky insight into your next venture?
When we first discovered hemp more than three years ago, we fell in love with its protein content. Ritual & Rise has been our project for a few years―a flavoured, high percentage hemp protein powder to match any other performance and lifestyle protein powder on the market. We are very excited to launch Ritual & Rise at the end of April with three delicious flavours; Double Choc Brownie, Banoffee Pie, and Maple.
What makes you and your team so passionate about hemp?
As a Māori pharmacist, I’m very passionate about the nutritional aspect of the hemp seed. It is the most nutrient dense seed known to man and I especially like how I can make my kids a nice hemp milk at night knowing it’s high in magnesium to help them get to sleep. We are lucky to have the calibre or people in our group with backgrounds ranging from fashion, pharmacy, farming, cooking and even banking, all who see hemp as having the ability to change their respective industries.
How do you draw inspiration from New Zealand life, culture as well as our environment?
Generally Kiwis are known for being clean and green, and we want to make sure this remains our reality. This motivates us to make it as easy as possible for people to choose our products knowing that they tick all the boxes of what it means to be a healthy, environmentally conscious Kiwi. We also pay respect to our tangata whenua by incorporating te reo into our products and product descriptions as our attempt to revitalise it.
