Under-fire small business network We Are Indigo to head new $5.45 million Creative NZ funding body

Monday, 5 December 2022

Creative New Zealand insists it does not hate Shakespeare after the prime minister intervened to help fund the Shakespeare Globe Centre of NZ. (Audio aired October 2022).

Under-fire small business network We Are Indigo has been announced as the service provider of a new $5.45 million digital arts service, on behalf of Creative NZ.

The new project, headed by We Are Indigo owned business Toi ki Tua, would receive the money over four years to improve the digital skills of local artists.

Toi ki Tua aimed to help artists to secure intellectual property and monetise their work through digital platforms, and increase audience engagement in digital art.

We Are Indigo is a business network offering advice and training to Māori and Pasifika small businesses.

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Andy Hamilton (left), Pat MacFie (right) are directors of We Are Inidigo and subsidiary Manaaki, which is run by Rachel Adams. In July, Manaaki also received funding from Creative NZ to upskill and mentor 10 Pasifika businesses, as part of the Pacific Arts Strategy.

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The company has been accused of bullying, taking advantage of small businesses.

Creative New Zealand chief executive Stephen Wainwright said he was aware of the rumours about the business, but was confident in the reputation of We Are Indigo.

“Word of mouth in our industry is huge. But what we thought was significant was that the creatives we spoke to who worked closely with We Are Indigo had found it to be a very good experience. We think that is a very important thing,” Wainwright said.

The rumours surrounding We Are Indigo centre on its high profile face-off with another government business funding body, Callaghan Innovation.

Callaghan Innovation brought in a private investigator to review businesses which had applied for funding from it.

The report itself has not yet been made public, but Stuff understands it included several allegations We Are Indigo used bullying tactics, had business performance issues, and had failed to pay subcontractors.

Wainwright said the negative attention directed at We Are Indigo meant that Creative NZ undertook “heightened levels of due diligence” before awarding the project to the business.

“One of the tricky things about this is there has been no real way to clear the air because nothing has gone before a formal body. There has been a lot of ‘he said, she said’ and finger pointing.

“We have done work with We Are Indigo previously, which went extremely well. We have spoken to other organisations, including MBIE, that had worked closely with them too… We have done all we can to satisfy ourselves that these are a good partner for us in the creative sector,” Wainwright said.

In July, We Are Indigo subsidiary Manaaki received funding from Creative NZ to upskill and mentor 10 Pasifika businesses, as part of the Pacific Arts Strategy.

Toi ki Tua will work in consultation with the arts sector to establish the parameters of the digital service, in a process which will begin early next year.

In November, All Blacks Ardie Savea and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck transferred their shares in the We Are Indigo business.

We Are Indigo director Andy Hamilton previously said the players exited the business because of the media attention it has attracted.

“These are very high-profile people, and we didn’t want to drag them into this,” Hamilton said.

The players were unhappy with the media bringing up their names each time Indigo was mentioned, and the business worked with them to transfer their shares, he said.

We Are Indigo did not respond to a request for comment.