Bridging Tradition and Innovation through Māngai Media
Max Yeager (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Whakaue) runs Māngai Media, a small Māori owned business here in Mount Maunganui. Max has a background in marketing and communications and in 2018 he graduated with a Business diploma in Marketing, Communications & Sales from Waikato University.
After finishing high school Max’s path wasn’t clear and like many other young people growing up, he wasn’t sure of what he wanted to do. While finishing his Diploma with Waikato University, he was also interning at a well-established PR agency here in Tauranga Moana. This opportunity allowed Max to develop what he had learned while studying and apply it in real scenarios.
Over his internship Max was able to work across a wide range of businesses and brands in the Bay of Plenty and the wider New Zealand which opened his eyes to how everything really worked. Max found it valuable being surrounded by people who had a wealth of knowledge in the marketing world and over his time working there he was able to take small bits of Mātauranga and add it to his kete.
For as long as he can remember Max has been passionate about creating things. While growing up, Max’s mum would always be filming the kids on her VHS Camcorder, which was the top of the line camera back in the early 2000s. Max remembers playing around with it one day and being absolutely fascinated with it, filming random stuff and getting super excited watching it back. Those early memories of messing around with that camera led Max into picking it up later on.
Music has also been a big part of Max’s life. He’s played guitar since he was young, always participating in kapa haka “whether I liked it or not” and when he reached high school his friend introduced me to a software called “FL Studio”, a digital audio workstation (DAW) that lets you create, mix, and produce music with a range of built-in sounds, instruments, and effects all from your laptop. Max started messing around with that and fell in love. Fast forward to now he has worked with Multi-Platinum, Grammy Nominated artists from across the world. Max’s life bounces between both the film & music space which go hand in hand with each other.
Māngai is a creative hub driven by Mātauranga and Tikanga Māori, and over the past few years Max has worked with brands, businesses and artists who are really good at what they do.
A whakatauki Max really admires is “Ka Whati te tai ka pao te tōrea” – much like the saying ‘strike while the iron is hot’, if Max is presented with an opportunity he will do his best to act on it straightaway. So far this year he has worked on two documentaries, shot a music festival, and worked on two major albums for International artists in the US.
Max’s ancestors were natural storytellers, creatives, entrepreneurs and problem solvers. He draws inspiration from them and tries to channel it into the work he does today.
