Technology in China inspiration for a New Zealand indigenous birthing app  

31 May 2023

Te Miringa Parkes is the founder of Ūkaipō, a venture designed to support traditional Māori birthing practices through the adoption of new technologies. Her journey has recently taken her to Hong Kong and Southern China for inspiration in the development of her venture.

Ūkaipō originally began as a way for Te Miringa to bring to life the vision of her mother, who spent years researching the placenta burying practice. Traditional containers such as Uku (claypot) or Harakeke basket (flax basket) are inaccessible or hard to make. In response, Te Miringa designed leak-proof, biodegradable Rau Whenua placenta planting packages. The construction of the Ūkaipō Rau Whenua basket is unique in using a particular cardboard with an inner membrane that breaks down, meaning that it is both home-compostable and freezer safe (as planting often happens a few months after birth). Te Miringa was supported in the initial development of Ūkaipō by the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). In 2020 she entered the Velocity $100k Challenge business planning competition and placed second, providing her with seed capital and a place in the VentureLab incubator. She describes the experience as “life changing.”

Now, Te Miringa is looking at building upon her venture by adopting further technologies in the pursuit of protecting tikanga (societal lore) around Māori birthing practices. She was recently chosen as one of ten founders to take part in a technology study tour to Hong Kong and Southern China, organised by the North Asia Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence (North Asia Cape). The trip included visits to LG Display in Guangzhou, ZURU toy company, Tencent – the founding company of China’s Facebook-equivalent WeChat, and more.

Te Miringa says that the trip has provided inspiration for the indigenous birthing app she currently has in development. “For me the future of Ūkaipō is about creating accessible resources and places where we can connect to our Māori taonga. I think the future is digital, so we should be in that space as well.”

Te Miringa is a serial entrepreneur. She launched and sold an events business while studying towards a Bachelor of Commerce and has also run a company selling biodegradable balloons. Te Miringa often posts on LinkedIn with brutal honesty about the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur. She says, “Every opportunity that comes my way I take, because it’s another opportunity for me to level up. But more importantly, another opportunity for me to fill my kete to take home to my people. Ko te manu e kai ana te miro nōnā te ngahere. Ko te manu e kai ana te mātauranga nōnā te ao. The bird that consumes the miro owns the forest. The bird that consumes knowledge owns the world.”