In 2012, she worked as a language coach for the
Rachel House-directed production of
William Shakespeare's
Troilus and Cressida, performed in
Māori. In 2017, Waititi formed the production company
Matewa Media alongside filmmaker (and then wife of Taika Waititi)
Chelsea Winstanley. The company was named for Waititi's grandmother Matewa Delamere (1926–1998). Waititi and Winstanley were inspired to create Māori language adaptations of
Disney films while watching Waititi's toddlers watch
Moana on repeat, and hoping that they would be able to experience the film in Māori. Taika Waititi, who had worked on an early draft of the English language version of the film, proposed the idea to Disney, who agreed and allowed Matewa Media to start work on the film.
Moana Reo Māori was released in 2017, coinciding with
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) 2017. In 2020, Waititi worked as a script consultant on the LGBT film
Rūrangi, to help develop authentic Māori storylines for the production. Waititi won the Department of Post Best New Zealand Film at the
Show Me Shorts film festival in 2020, for producing the short film ''Daddy's Girl (Kōtiro)''. The following year, she translated the song "
Bathe in the River" (2006) by
Hollie Smith into Māori, as a part of the
Waiata / Anthems project. In 2022, Waititi produced two Māori language adaptations of Disney films:
The Lion King (originally released 1994), released during
Matariki, and
Frozen (originally released 2013), released in 2022. Waititi directed and produced the Māori version of
Moana 2, which uses the
Tairāwhiti dialect. When it is released on 27 November 2024, it will be the first time ever that a Disney film is released in an Indigenous language at the same time as its English-language release. == Dialects ==