Tūpuna Parenting

What Tūpuna Parenting does

Tūpuna Parenting is a New Zealand-based movement, operated through the legal entity Pēpi Penapena Tapui Limited and founded in 2018 by Elizabeth Emere Harte (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou), that works to reclaim and disseminate pre-colonial Māori parenting practices grounded in mātauranga Māori. Its product surface is built around three pillars: a free content library of whānau pūrākau (oral histories) and kaupapa videos organised by life stage (pēpi, nohinohi, tamariki, rangatahi) and topic (pāpā, tikanga whānau, big emotions); structured paid learning pathways including Ngākau Aroha for Kaimahi (professional development for kaimahi working with whānau), Tūpuna Parenting Foundations (introductory wānanga), and the Tūpuna Parenting Guide; and downloadable Ngā Rauemi PDF resources plus published rangahau research, including a 2025 Social Return on Investment evaluation reporting $11.20 of value per $1 invested.

The technology stack is a lightweight, SaaS-only build: Sanity as the headless content management system, Vercel for website hosting and deployment, LearnWorlds as the cloud-based learning management system for course delivery, MailChimp for mailing lists and waitlists, Google Workspace for internal collaboration, and Stripe for course-fee payment processing. The organisation itself is small — approximately five employees — and operates without patents, no external institutional investors, and no disclosed funding rounds, with revenue derived from course fees billed in NZD and grant/funder support (notably the MAS Foundation).

The go-to-market is community-led and operates across two primary customer segments: Māori whānau (families) who consume free digital content and attend Foundations wānanga, and kaimahi (professionals such as social workers, teachers, and health workers) who pay for the Ngākau Aroha professional development programme and are positioned as multipliers who spread the kaupapa across their organisations. A smaller organisational partnership tier allows institutions to bring the training to their staff. Distribution combines self-serve digital (website and LearnWorlds), in-person wānanga, and partner channels, with all operations currently scoped to Aotearoa New Zealand.

Name

Tūpuna Parenting

Legal name

Pēpi Penapena Tapui Limited

Website

https://tupunaparenting.maori.nz

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Tūpuna Parenting is a New Zealand Māori-led movement that delivers evidence-based professional development courses, video pūrākau, and downloadable resources to help whānau and kaimahi reclaim pre-colonial Māori parenting practices grounded in mātauranga Māori.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Māori Parenting Education

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Child and Youth Services (62411), Educational Support Services (61171)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Family & Parent Support Services (Parent Coaching, Advocacy) (EDAJALAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Family Engagement & Take-Home Learning Materials (Home Packs, Parent Guides) (EDACAJAL), Family & Parenting Education (Family Literacy, Parenting Skills) (EDAAAFAF), Family Engagement & Culturally Responsive Practice Training (EDACAIAJ)

Keywords

• Māori parenting education
• Cultural parenting resources
• Professional development courses
• Whānau support services
• Indigenous parenting practices

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Professional Development Courses: Paid courses including Ngākau Aroha for Kaimahi (professional development for kaimahi working with whānau) and Tūpuna Parenting Foundations (wānanga to introduce the kaupapa). Fees must be paid by the Friday before the opening wānanga. Instalment options may be negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Cancellation permitted until end of Week 2 with refund, or deferral valid for 12 months.
2. Course Fees and Registration: Course fees billed in New Zealand Dollars (NZD). Accepted payment methods include bank transfer and credit/debit card via Stripe. Additional fees may apply for certain payment methods.
3. Funder Support: The organization receives support from funders including the MAS Foundation, who funded the creation of an introductory video about the mahi. Additional funders support the kaupapa in various ways.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Tūpuna Parenting delivers Māori parenting education through paid professional development courses for kaimahi (practitioners working with whānau) and foundational wānanga workshops, complemented by free pūrākau video content and downloadable rauemi resources for whānau (Māori families). The Te Haerenga guide anchors the educational curriculum, which is grounded in ancestral mātauranga and independently evaluated social outcomes.

Product overview

Tūpuna Parenting is a movement run by Pēpi Penapena Tapui Ltd that offers a unified platform of educational products centered on reclaiming pre-colonial Māori parenting practices. The core offering consists of video-based pūrākau (stories) available through the Ngā Pūrākau section, paired with structured learning pathways including the Tūpuna Parenting Guide, Ngākau Aroha for Kaimahi professional development courses, and Tūpuna Parenting Foundations introductory wānanga. Supporting the video content are downloadable PDF resources and activities (Ngā Rauemi) and rangahau/evaluation reports that provide evidence-based validation of the programme's impact. The products are delivered through the Tūpuna Parenting website and the LearnWorlds online learning platform, with content organized across life stages from pēpi (babies) through rangatahi (teenagers) and topics including tikanga whānau (family rules), big emotions, and collective parenting.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Ngākau Aroha for Kaimahi A paid professional development program for kaimahi (practitioners working with whānau), enabling them to apply ancestral Māori parenting practices and the mātauranga of Tūpuna Parenting within their professional practice across education, health, and social services. Delivered online via LearnWorlds with instalment and multi-year subscription options.
• Tūpuna Parenting Foundations
• Tūpuna Parenting Guide (Te Haerenga) A comprehensive guide exploring the mātauranga behind Tūpuna Parenting, anchoring the educational curriculum and supporting both whānau learners and kaimahi practitioners in understanding the ancestral parenting framework.

Quantifiable outcome

• Social Return on Investment: $11.20 of value created for every $1 invested in Ngākau Aroha for Kaimahi

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Babywearing AotearoaminorOthersBabywearing Aotearoa is referenced as New Zealand's community organisation for babywearing, offering support and resources. Tūpuna Parenting links to their resources in the Carrying Pēpi with Aroha video content, supporting the connection between tūpuna practices and modern parenting.
• Real ParentsminorOthersReal Parents is an organisation that shares mātauranga about whānau life and navigating teen years. Tūpuna Parenting links to their resources on supporting rangatahi and safety tikanga in relevant video content.
• LearnWorldscoreTechnology or IntegrationLearnWorlds is the cloud-based online learning platform (LMS) used by Tūpuna Parenting to deliver professional development courses. LearnWorlds (CY) Ltd is based in Cyprus and manages data processing and storage through its infrastructure with built-in video hosting and integrations for secure data handling.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Barnardos New Zealand: Long-established child and family services NGO running parenting programs, early childhood services, and family support across Aotearoa. Comparable in serving whānau and kaimahi with parenting resources, but operates as a large incumbent with a broader social-services mandate rather than a culturally specific mātauranga movement.
• Plunket: Aotearoa's largest child wellbeing organisation, providing Well Child services, parenting support, and clinical care nationwide. Overlaps with Tūpuna Parenting on whānau-facing parenting support but operates at much larger scale, with a broader general-population remit rather than Māori-specific mātauranga.

Direct peers

• Parent Help: Aotearoa-based parent support service offering counselling, a helpline, and parenting resources. Comparable in providing direct support to whānau struggling with parenting challenges, though it is generalist and crisis-oriented rather than culturally anchored in mātauranga Māori.
• Parents Centres Aotearoa: Federation of local centres delivering antenatal and parenting education courses across New Zealand. Closely comparable to Tūpuna Parenting's course-led model (Tūpuna Parenting Foundations, Ngākau Aroha for Kaimahi) for whānau and kaimahi, although the kaupapa is mainstream rather than Māori-anchored.
• Whānau Ora: Māori-led whānau-centred approach to family wellbeing, delivered through commissioning agencies and navigators. Shares Tūpuna Parenting's community-led, whakapapa-grounded model and serves overlapping Māori whānau audiences, though Whānau Ora is broader in scope than parenting specifically.
• Brainwave Trust: Aotearoa charity producing research-informed parenting education and resources about early brain development. Closely comparable to Tūpuna Parenting's evidence-based, research-anchored approach to parent education, although Brainwave's framing is neuroscience rather than mātauranga Māori.
• Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand: Membership and professional development organisation for the early childhood education sector in Aotearoa. Comparable on the kaimahi professional development side of Tūpuna Parenting's offering, with overlap in training early-years professionals, though its scope is the full ECE sector rather than Māori parenting mātauranga.

Emerging players

• Great Fathers New Zealand: Smaller, mission-driven NZ organisation focused specifically on father-inclusive parenting. Overlaps with Tūpuna Parenting's pāpā/dads content stream and movement-style kaupapa, but with a fatherhood rather than te reo Māori anchoring.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/tupuna-parenting

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Tūpuna Parenting