Nina Kereama-Stevenson was born and bred in Palmerston North, with affiliations to Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kuia, Maniapoto, and Ngāti Hau.
After initially considering a career in Indigenous psychology after high school, Nina is thrilled with her decision to bring creativity to life through her chosen path in design, as she wraps up her final year of UCOL’s Bachelor of Creative Media.
Reflecting on what she’s achieved over the last three years, it’s clear that Nina’s upbringing – drenched in te ao Māori and te taiao (the environment), alongside her creative skill - is what has laid her path to success.
“My mum used to work for the Department of Conservation, so her knowledge of our environment is awesome. When we were kids she’d take me and my two siblings for walks to teach us about all the different plants, their names and their uses.”
In her second year Nina began a self-directed half-year project, resulting in the creation of a children’s book titled Okū Tuākana. The story follows a girl, Tui, on her journey home through te taiao. What she created has grown legs of its own inspiring herself and others, gaining its own momentum and influence.
“Creating this project has definitely provided me with the most growth of all my assignments so far,” says Nina. “I based it on my childhood, when Mum would take us out to the bush and share her mātauranga Māori with us – what the plants were called, how we can use them. Even just the way Tui looks is based on a mix of my sister and I,” she says.
“Originally, I had intended to do a couple of pages rather than a whole book, but then once I started exploring different narratives, I knew it was going to have a human character interacting with animals or something from our environment, so I just started writing and then reflecting on using plants as characters. Talking with my whānau helped to develop the story and the right kupu (words) to use as children’s books need to be able to be read aloud easily with a rhythm. Once the story itself was finished, I put a lot of time into the consideration of each page layout and how to make each plant become a character while also not being too scary looking for the kids.”
Lecturers from within UCOL’s creative team were excited fairly early on in the development of Okū Tuākana and, with Nina’s permission, shared the concept with music lecturers, who then began working with Nina to create a musical adaption and audiobook.
With the concept of having the book published in early 2025 for distribution to local schools in the first instance, Nina has now refined her illustrations and is working on book number two, while in discussions with the Palmerston North City Council to bring
Okū Tuākana to life in natural place spaces – a connection developed within the programme through
UCOL’s Workhub.
Throughout Nina’s final year, she’s been involved in a range of creative works thanks to UCOL’s Workhub (a work-integrated learning space/facility), connecting ākonga with industry experience.
“I absolutely admire the Workhub, it is really where UCOL excels compared to other providers for its creative students,” Nina says. “It’s all well and good to be creative and bring your vision to life, but it’s a whole other ball game bringing someone else’s vision to life and the skills needed to be able to have the conversations in the way that works for the clients, learning how to become a freelance artist and the business stuff that comes with that, I couldn’t be more thankful for this experience.”
In the Workhub, Nina worked on a variety of real-world client based projects. One project involved generating a wrap-around exhibition event for the Palmerston North City Council, celebrating the pop culture expo Armageddon. Here, Nina created an immersive experience styled in a solar cyberpunk world, reflecting what the world could become if we merged technology and culture through a te ao Māori lens.
Another project enabled Nina to combine her passion and talents together, “I am involved in theatre a wee bit, so I was already familiar with the kaimahi of Centrepoint Theatre, who needed a new logo to celebrate their 50th anniversary, so from the project perspective, that was fairly straightforward as I already had a relationship with them,” Nina explained.
Her UCOL assignments aren’t her only recent success, however. Nina also volunteered for the Palmerston North Drag Fest this year, which received a sponsorship package from Flamingo Scooters. As part of this package, Nina was offered the chance to design a rainbow wrap for every Flamingo scooter across the city.
Reflecting on her time at UCOL, Nina couldn’t sing higher praises. “My time at UCOL has just been so nice! The lecturers are incredible and so supportive. They’ve also been so great at steering us as students in the right direction while still allowing us time and space to find our way too.”