The Overview of the Whare
Maria is the founder and force behind Āio Studios — a multidisciplinary space where strategy, healing, and creative expression are built. Her work moves across communications, brand development, energetic facilitation, writing, voice, and sound. Each strand is distinct, but all are connected by a single through-line: to create work that is true, aligned, and deeply grounded in purpose.
With decades of experience across iwi, community, and national projects, Maria brings both structure and presence to everything she builds. Whether she’s designing messaging frameworks, voicing a campaign, guiding someone through healing, or developing audio-based resources, her approach is steady, intentional, and focused on what matters.
Āio is the full expression of her work — not a brand, but a body of practice drawn from lived experience, professional insight, and spiritual depth.
Tūhono: Te Pou Tāhuhu
Strategic Architecture and Communications Systems Design
Designing the frameworks, the infrastructure, and the flows
Tūhono is the foundational whenu of Āio Studio. It holds the strategy, structure, and alignment work that sits beneath any outward expression. This is where the kaupapa is clarified, the intention is anchored, and the direction is set before anything is created or communicated.
Maria works closely with individuals, organisations, and kaupapa-led teams to bring shape to what might still be forming. This can include values alignment, naming, messaging architecture, audience mapping, kaupapa framing, or identifying the core pou that hold the work. It is thoughtful, practical work that requires listening, patience, and precision.
Tūhono is where strategy meets spirit. It honours both the deeper why and the practical how. The process is steady and clear. The focus is on what feels true and what will hold — in form, in function, and in integrity.
Whether it’s the early stage of a kaupapa, a refresh of something that’s shifted, or a need to clarify messaging before design or delivery, Tūhono ensures that everything rests on strong foundations.
Whakarei: Te Tuanui - The Creative House
Creative Direction and Expression Design
Bring your message to visual life
Te Tuanui is the creative whenu of Āio Studio. It is the strand where design, storytelling, and communication are shaped in alignment with kaupapa. Every element is created with care, purpose, and respect for the work it supports.
This whenu holds the creative expression of Āio. It is where visual and written elements are developed to reflect the depth and intention of each kaupapa. Maria works across brand language, narrative development, visual storytelling, publication design, and campaign content. Each piece is crafted to be clear, cohesive, and connected.
With experience across iwi, community, and national kaupapa, Maria brings calm focus to high-trust, high-impact environments. Her strength is in holding the thread between vision and delivery, and shaping creative outcomes that feel aligned and meaningful.
Te Tuanui is a space for expression. It gives kaupapa the form, story, and design they need to be seen and understood in the right way.
Te Reo Rere: Voice Work and Audio Storytelling
Narrative Delivery and Audio Communications
Storytelling shaped to connect, calm, and communicate
Maria’s work with voice began more than 20 years ago in iwi radio and has grown across a range of formats. She has contributed to bilingual narration, campaign voiceovers, kaupapa-driven storytelling, and longform audio, always with a steady focus on carrying kaupapa clearly, calmly, and with care.
She has voiced content for Moana FM, Āti Awa Toa FM, Arawa FM, Bridge FM, The Heat FM, and Maniapoto FM, supporting projects across iwi, community, and national kaupapa. Some of this work includes Our Place (Whakatāne District), Ngā Puaroa Horonuku (Tūhoe), Karanga (Waka Hourua), and the BBC’s Mataatua: The House That Came Home.
Maria is also the voice of Mātauranga Māori, the latest publication by Sir Hirini Moko Mead — a responsibility she holds with deep respect.
She is currently designing the full soundscape for Tangihanga, a theatrical work by Krystal Neho. The composition blends karanga, original vocal layers, and atmospheric sound to support both live performance and future film adaptation.
Maria approaches voice work with clarity and intent. She understands the tone, timing, and care required to carry kaupapa through sound, and stays grounded in the purpose behind each piece.
Mahara: Te Tūāpapa - The Foundation (in person)
Healing and Alignment for Mind, Spirit, and Emotions
Holding space for spiritual awareness, emotional clarity, and embodied healing
Mahara is the in-person strand of Maria’s healing work. It is grounded in a lifetime of spiritual experience and shaped by a deep commitment to helping others return to themselves. Her approach is built on presence, awareness, and real, open conversation. The work may involve mirimiri, energy alignment, intuitive guidance, or the quiet space that allows what needs to surface, to do so.
Each session responds to what’s true in the moment. There is no fixed process, because each person carries a different story. Maria meets that story with calm focus and a clear intention to work with what lies beneath — with honesty, clarity, and care.
This space is not about performing or pleasing. It is for those who are ready to stop outsourcing their truth and begin returning to their own centre. Slowly. Clearly. With grounded support that knows when to hold and when to step back.
Mahara includes one-on-one sessions, wānanga, and tailored support. It also includes body-based healing through mirimiri and energy realignment, sound and frequency work, and space to reflect and process. Maria also offers group sessions, public talks, collaborative kaupapa, and life coaching for those navigating change, growth, or spiritual awakening.
Mahara: (Digital Healing Resources)
Multi-Format Healing Suites for Reflection and Realignment
Supporting the inner work with accessible, intentional resources
Mahara: Ngā Rawa is the digital strand of Maria’s healing work. It carries the tools, insights, and learnings drawn from her own lived experience — shaped by moments of surrender, breakthrough, remembering, and deep spiritual return. Each offering is created with purpose and integrity. Nothing is made for show. Everything is made to serve.
At the centre of this work is one focus: to return to the I Am. Not as an idea, but as a state of knowing. A clear awareness beyond identity. A connection to Christ Consciousness, where trauma can dissolve and truth can be restored.
Mahara: Ngā Rawa holds the expression of Maria’s inner work in practical form. It is where her lifelong spiritual journey becomes sound, language, and tangible tools that others can draw from in their own time, in their own way.
This includes sound-based resources for reflection, emotional release, and transformation. It also includes healing journals designed to identify and integrate core patterns, frequency-based tools that respond to the spiritual challenges of today, and cards that offer guidance and affirmation. Through Mahara, Maria shares support for those walking through grief, identity shifts, spiritual awakening, and the quiet work of returning to self.