However, it’s not only these characters and the player asserting their presence but the game’s 28-year-old designer Tali Faulkner, whose Māori heritage is suffused throughout the world with visual cues like tāniko and raranga patterns.

Poutama Hetaraka says he is not only looking forward to experiencing a completely different environment but also to seeing mātauranga Māori become more and more embedded in conversations about environmental management of the Earth and Antarctica in particular”.