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Rochelle Leef

@cue.rochelle

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Works….. too much.
Travels….. not enough.
From….. Aotearoa, NZ
@switchitupevents

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@fire5_netball Main Event Gold Coast Day 1
I was just a lil sick this day but we push on cause the show must go on!

Pool play day! Lots of action our first Men’s Fire5 game which was awesome!

@naomi_sutton @switchitupevents by @cue.rochelle

A lil bit behind cause it’s been a lil busy and I got sick…..

Set up day at Fire5 GC Main Event hanging out with my bestie @naomi_sutton by @cue.rochelle

Day 2 @fire5_netball Next Gen U17 here in the Gold Coast.

34 games, 15 teams.
Some absolutely beautiful young ladies!
And great netball!!

Thanks @mariatutaia and @georgia_trent for having us!

@naomi_sutton @switchitupevents by @cue.rochelle

Comp Day 1 @fire5_netball Next Gen U14
Big day with the team!
@naomi_sutton @georgia_trent @mariatutaia

@switchitupevents by @cue.rochelle

Showtime Tāmaki Makaurau
@stanwalker A Symphonic Experience

A pleasure to be apart of this special show the Mauri is real on this one! Can’t wait to do it all again on the next two!

Thanks to @monstavisionnz for having me on this one!
@thedanirvine on tech 👨‍🔧
@naomi_sutton on the notes assist 📝
@caseykaa on content 🤳🏽
@mattwynharris @rileyheslop @visualcompulsion on cameras 🎥 by @cue.rochelle

Prep for @stanwalker A Symphonic Experience in Tāmaki a couple weeks back! Really looking forward to doing it all again in Ōtautahi & Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

Thanks @monstavisionnz for having me on this one! by @cue.rochelle

Ngā mihi o te wiki o te reo Māori

I thought everyday this week I would highlight a core Māori memory from my career.

Here we go Day 5
The newest project, I was a mere passenger in this waka but so so very cool to play a small part!

@hey_moko_ is a awesome new platform launched by my good friend @caseykaa

Her vision to bring more Māori and Bilingual resources for our tamariki. With this weeks launch of the new album and her book out now too. Very proud of this output! Not mine to take credit for but definitely here to tautoko!

If you have tamariki check it out!
Insta: @hey_moko_
Spotify: Whiti Ana, Tō Ana (album name)
Book: Pō Mārie My Moko

As the proudest Aunty of all of my nieces and nephews, the blood ones and the ones I just steel from my friends our kids need more of this good in the world and it is beautiful! My niece Amaia came to one of the recording sessions and left asking me every words she could think of and what its translation was in Māori…. This aunty isn’t that good but we learnt together! 💖 by @cue.rochelle

Ngā mihi o te wiki o te reo Māori

I thought everyday this week I would highlight a core Māori memory from my career.

Here we go Day 4

Artefact 2 - throwing back to my TV career now.

Post my first stint in events I fell back into TV for a bit while I figured out where to go from here. I accepted a Line Producer job on Artefact. A documentary series for Greenstone TV which is about Māori Taonga.

The series was one that definitely had its struggles! I started as Line Producer and ended as Associate Producer and one of the last people standing. The whole series was special the people who worked on it behind and in front of the camera were special as well as the stories we told!

But the one shoot that stands out for me and I will never forget is a trip to Hokitika that I originally wasn’t meant to go on.

Last minute we decided that I would go purely to cook at the marae and make sure everyone was looked after…. We were shooting a story at Arahura Marae about their female kaiwero as I think the only Marae (if not one of) in Aotearoa to have female kaiwero. There were a lot of people travelling over from Ōtautahi for the story and they all needed to be looked after. Because sort of everyone was involved in filming someone needed to keep the wharekai going that someone was now me.

The Manaaki shown by everyone on this shoot was immense. I felt like I joined a new west coast whānau at the other end of the country! And I still to this day treasure the piece of greenstone I was gifted while there💚
This shoot and this series will always have a small part of me! And no one got food poisoning so that was a win! by @cue.rochelle

Ngā mihi o te wiki o te reo Māori

I thought everyday this week I would highlight a core Māori memory from my career.

Here we go Day 3 - It’s a big one!

2015 - Te Matatini He Ngākau Aroha (Ōtautahi)
2017 - Te Matatini Te Kahu o Te Aorangi (Heretaunga)
2019 - Te Matatini ki te Ao (Te Whanganui-a-Tara)
2023 - Te Matatini Herenga Waka Herenga Tangata (Tāmaki Makaurau)
2025 - Te Matatini o Te Kāhui Maunga (Ngāmotu)

I have had the pleasure of working on FIVE Te Matatini competitions. And boy has it grown over the years. The world’s biggest Kapahaka competition just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

You can tell how tech progressed from 2015-2025 in these pictures. Working for @monstavisionnz on each of these directing for the Big Screens in venue. A couple of cameras to capture crowd and MC antics and a bunch of graphics. Then sit back and watch each Kapa take the stage. A small cog in a giant machine.

As a little kid I did Kapahaka but these sorts of comps never came North… I didn’t follow through with it into High School. I was not that into Kapahaka. But seeing now the development and the pushing of the boundaries that these Kapa do in each and every performance now. Stunning! Absolute beasts in their crafts I have now come to love Kapahaka as a spectator, as a Camera Director, as an Event Manager and Creative Producer. I love to build where I can Kapahaka and Te Ao Māori into my events! by @cue.rochelle

Ngā mihi o te wiki o te reo Māori

I thought everyday this week I would highlight a core Māori memory from my career.

Here we go Day 2

2022 - FIFA Women’s World Cup (NZ/AU) Draw Ceremony.
I worked alongside some legends at what was then Great Big Events (now RWS) to bring together one heck of a Draw Ceremony.

FIFA is a beast and one that is very particular in what they want and executing this one was no mean feat! One of the biggest things I’ve ever worked on!

This draw ceremony was held in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. But because the entire tournament was to be hosted by Aotearoa and Australia we were tasked with creating an opening that represented the indigenous cultures of both countries. And WOW!

From the moment we were set the challenge we started discussions with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei in NZ and an elder in Australia. At first seperate meetings to set the scene and figure out what was next…… both sides had similar stores they wanted to tell, almost identical in concept with slightly different tikanga in execution.

Putting the two together was easy…. Like long lost siblings finally reunited. Getting the First Nations Australians to NZ a little harder though (flight delays and lost baggage) a behind closed doors pōwhiri once they finally arrived set the scene for what was going to be pure magic!

This Draw Ceremony, this piece was beamed all around the world putting two indigenous cultures on one shared stage with one shared purpose: kotahitanga.
It was an absolute pleasure to be apart of and something I will never forget! by @cue.rochelle

Ngā mihi o te wiki o te reo Māori

I thought everyday this week I would highlight a core Māori memory from my career.

Here we go Day 1

2026 - @bluesrugbyteam Aupiki Matariki Jersey.
When we found out our ladies would be playing in Northland on the Matariki public holiday we knew we needed to do something special.

The idea came about for a Matariki Jersey, I couldn’t get licensing across the line for any existing Matariki artwork in such a short time frame so I messaged my good friend Matai and got him to make some of our own! He and I talked about simplistic so they had meaning but still worked on things like big screen graphics etc as well.

Once each star had a design they were passed over to Tony the Blues graphics master to create a Jersey.

Tony really wanted this to fully embody Matariki and not just reference it. The goal was to feel like you really were looking at the night sky (read more on Tony’s thoughts and design process in the screenshots)

Really I was a facilitator that just helped where I could then got put on the spot to talk about it in the marae at the jersey blessing in Whangārei. But it was an honour to do a small part to bring this jersey to life and it’s a jersey I will keep forever!

The team loved this jersey so much, what was meant to be a one off appearance in Whangārei they actually kept playing in and took it through to the finals which they one their Back 2 Back 2 Back title 🏆🏆🏆 by @cue.rochelle

AIMS Games 2026 for @nowhere_nz

@caseykaa making me look cool!

More to come in this one! Show build this morning! Shows this arvo! by @cue.rochelle