At first glance, Polynesian Pride appears to be proudly Polynesian. A number of M\u0101ori designers \u2013 including one who has accused the site of copying her design \u2013 suspect otherwise.<\/p>\n
As Matariki approaches, a New Zealand fashion designer is warning shoppers wanting to rep M\u0101ori design to be careful about what they\u2019re buying and where it\u2019s coming from.<\/p>\n
Kat Tua, who runs the menswear brand Manaaki and takes inspiration from M\u0101ori art, weaving and storytelling in her designs, recently stumbled across a webstore called Polynesian Pride. Selling a vast range of clothes, accessories and homeware items covered in the patterns, flags and motifs of the Pacific Islands, it invites shoppers to \u201cwear your heritage\u201d and \u201cexpress your pride in your Polynesian roots\u201d.<\/p>\n
Polynesian Pride targets an underserved market (you can\u2019t buy this stuff at Farmers or AS Colour). Among the 32 countries and cultures the site caters to are New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Niue, Vanuatu and Kiribati. Even residents of Pitcairn Island, population 35, have hundreds of items to choose from. Among the endless array of items on the site are Matariki dresses, hoodies with the Kanak flag and T-shirts marking 50 years of Papua New Guinea independence, plus a polo shirt featuring a kiwi and kangaroo holding rifles in front of Van Gogh\u2019s The Starry Night, because of course. But look closer and you\u2019ll notice they\u2019re not real clothes. Instead, clear-cut garments and faceless models are overlaid with (very obvious) computer-rendered graphics. This method allows for endless iterations of each category or theme. The range is unreal and so are the people; many models appear to be AI-generated.<\/p>\n
Kat Tua of Manaaki (Photo: Apela Bell)<\/p>\n
At first Tua (Ng\u0101ti Kahu Ki Whangaroa, Ng\u0101ti Raukawa) was surprised by Polynesian Pride\u2019s low prices: a pair of \u201cToitu Te Tiriti Leggings\u201d will set you back $39.99 and a Matariki-themed laundry basket is $45.76. \u201cThen I realised that it was this whole massive conglomerate of Polynesian brands all merged together in this gross AI thing.\u201d Alarm bells started to ring when she looked at the use of M\u0101ori motifs like k\u014dwhaiwhai and t\u0101niko, elements that traditionally carry p\u016br\u0101kau (storytelling). Most used by Polynesian Pride aren\u2019t technically accurate, explains Tua. \u201cThey\u2019ve been stylised, put through AI, and then generated and formed in a different way, and it\u2019s actually no longer M\u0101ori.\u201d She sees it as another form of cultural and economic extraction. \u201cIt\u2019s just money making.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tua isn\u2019t the first to call out Polynesian Pride: people have been raising concerns online since at least 2023<\/a>. In 2025, designer and artist Rae Nordstrom<\/a> (Ng\u0101ti Hine Waikato-Tainui and Ng\u0101ti Whakaue), AKA Native Disruptor, contacted the website after seeing one of her own patterns, a geometric design inspired by weaving that she first used on a range of skirts 20 years ago, on its products. \u201cThey\u2019re making pillow cases, duvet covers, all sorts of things, with my design on it.\u201d She didn\u2019t receive a response to her email, sent to a support address listed on the site, and the products remain for sale.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not the first time Polynesian Pride has been warned about inappropriate use of M\u0101ori cultural elements. Lynell Tuffery Huria (Ng\u0101ti Ruanui, Ng\u0101ruahinerangi, Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi), managing partner of K\u0101hui Legal and an expert in M\u0101ori intellectual property rights, says the site has been contacted in the past about culturally inappropriate designs and has removed items from sale in response. \u201cI would definitely encourage any artists to reach out to them, point out that they\u2019re infringing their copyright and get them to take it down,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Polynesian Pride LLC is registered in Wyoming<\/a> in the US. The business address \u2013 30 N. Gould Street, Sheridan \u2013 is one used by thousands of other companies, according to local news outlets<\/a>, where its registered agents can act on behalf of \u201cforeign entities\u201d under state law. The local chamber of commerce receives weekly calls from customers trying to track down companies registered to the address. According to the Polynesian Pride website, orders are \u201cmeticulously\u201d produced and dispatched from a fulfilment centre located in Shangrao, China. Products are likely made on demand, with each design printed on generic base items. This way the business, or its contracting manufacturers, can offer a huge range while holding minimal inventory. In online comment threads, customers have complained that the products, when they do arrive, don\u2019t look like the pictures.<\/p>\n It\u2019s one of the few options available to creatives. Beyond sending the email to which she hasn\u2019t received a response, Nordstrom doesn\u2019t see how challenging them is an option. \u201cIt\u2019s too costly to fight anything like that with the law.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Tuffery Huria agrees that it\u2019s \u201ca real unjust situation\u2026 There\u2019s not a lot that artists can really do about it, unless they have the financial means.\u201d But there\u2019s no question that using these designs is bad practice from both an intellectual property perspective and a cultural perspective. \u201cThese designs have whakapapa and they have embedded m\u0101tauranga<\/a>.\u201d She says that taking Nordstrom\u2019s design and chucking it on a blanket is \u201cculturally inappropriate and offensive\u201d as well as a breach of the Copyright Act.<\/p>\n The law offers some fundamental protections; copyright exists as soon as someone creates a piece of work and \u201cso long as their work is an original work, then they will own copyright in that work\u201d, says Tuffery Huria. But challenging a breach of copyright is difficult. Although the Copyright Act grants ownership rights to an individual and their intellectual property, that means the onus sits with them to enforce those rights. Legal avenues are expensive.<\/p>\n Intellectual property frameworks are applied country by country, so if both nations are members<\/a> of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, you can enforce your copyright in another member country. (Polynesian Pride is registered as an LLC in the US, where it\u2019s \u201cmuch more expensive\u201d to take legal action.)<\/p>\n International moves have been made to improve design protection, like the World Intellectual Property Organization\u2019s Riyadh Design Law Treaty, introduced in 2024 and signed by 28 countries. New Zealand was not one of them. Without domestic and international protection, Tuffery Huria thinks taonga will continue to be undermined<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our Copyright Act is also \u201csignificantly\u201d out of date, she says, believing it needs to be updated to address the digital era and AI, as well as the Wai 262 claim <\/a>around M\u0101ori intellectual and cultural property rights.<\/p>\n While seeing someone repping their culture and identity through fashion is heartening, instead of shopping on online stores based abroad \u2013 or Temu \u2013 Nordstrom hopes to see more people supporting local designers. \u201cThe M\u0101ori economy is bigger than people think.\u201d Many of them sell their work on the Facebook group Buy M\u0101ori Made, where she first posted<\/a> about Polynesian Pride copying her work.<\/p>\n With technology making it so easy to create and distribute unoriginal work, Nordstrom is concerned about the wider impacts of digital harm on creatives, small businesses and M\u0101ori \u2013 including generative AI. \u201cI think it will discourage people.\u201d The online slop swamp has only continued to grow, with each week bringing more maybe-probably-definitely AI-generated models<\/a> and hideous false death announcements<\/a> from sports pages on Facebook. They\u2019re murky in origin, like the clothing sellers, and exactly who is behind them isn\u2019t always clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, who\u2019s behind Polynesian Pride? When run through an AI image detector, a picture of the supposed founder, John William, shows a 95% likelihood of being AI generated. His 73-word bio doesn\u2019t say where he lives, what his professional background is or give any indication of his whakapapa. It does, however, describe Polynesian Pride\u2019s products as \u201cpowerful canvas of ancestry\u201d. But what he\u2019s wearing doesn\u2019t look real either.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Spinoff emailed a number of questions to Polynesian Pride, including whether Rae Nordstrom\u2019s complaint had been received and whether John Williams was real, but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n Tua believes that if John William \u2013 if he indeed exists \u2013 was passionate about his culture, he\u2019d have consulted or collaborated with M\u0101ori. \u201cThere would be that sense of awareness or responsibility, if he was actually genuinely proudly Polynesian. The whole thing contradicts itself.\u201d\u00a0You can\u2019t just chuck a k\u014dwhaiwhai on a shirt and call it M\u0101ori, she says. \u201cK\u014dwhaiwhai exist because usually they represent wh\u0101nau and family and lineage,\u201d Tua explains. \u201cDon\u2019t call it Polynesian Pride and have M\u0101ori written all over it, because it\u2019s actually no longer M\u0101ori.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She says it\u2019s not about gatekeeping: \u201cAnyone can do Maori-inspired clothing if you\u2019re willing to learn and do it in a responsible way that\u2019s respectful.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a market for it. And for Pacific fashion. \u201cI think that people are tapping into that,\u201d Tua says. \u201cThey\u2019ve sniffed out that there\u2019s money to be made.<\/p>\nPolynesian Pride\u2019s \u2018Brown Taniko Aotearoa Quilt\u2019 is strikingly similar to Nordstrom\u2019s taaniko wrap skirt (right) (Source: Facebook, @nativedisruptor)<\/p>\n
Complaints about Polynesian Pride range from cultural appropriation to \u2018crap\u2019 products (Source: Facebook)<\/p>\n
The website stocks \u2018toitu te tiriti leggings\u2019 and what looks a lot like Te Taura Whiri o te Reo Ma\u0304ori\u2019s hei tiki logo \u2013 the unauthorised use of which is something the M\u0101ori Language Commission is concerned about<\/a> (Source: Polynesian Pride)<\/p>\n
John William. (Source: Polynesian Pride)<\/p>\n