It had just gone midnight when Kaiora Tipene touched her first dead body, after receiving a call from her overwhelmed husband to assist with dressing cadavers.

It was Francis’s sudden and startling passion for the funeral industry that had brought the young couple from the isolated town of Kaitaia, in rural Northland, to New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland. With a one-year-old baby in tow, the Tipenes had no knowledge of the industry, only a vague sense that death could be done better. They were just 21.

“I was very hesitant, I used to make him leave his work clothes in the garage before he came into the house. I was scared, scared of helping him,” says Tipene, sitting in a lush teal armchair in her Onehunga office, her four-week-old newborn asleep in her arms.

The family only recently moved out of their home above the undertakers, and Kaiora says she still feels most comfortable in the upstairs flat, where the staff and some aunties are sharing kai (food), while the Tipene children play and work around them.

“I started talking to the bodies while I was working with them, having little chats. That’s how I was able to overcome the whole morbid feeling … it passed and like Francis, this became my passion.”

It’s a passion that has made the Tipenes into global television stars, after Netflix picked up a locally produced documentary series on the couple’s working lives: The Casketeers. The first season – tasteful, moving, candid and hilarious – saw the humble family became celebrities in New Zealand, and they are now recognised everywhere they go in the small island nation of less than 5 million people.

The Spinoff called the show “an instant Kiwi classic”, while Radio New Zealand described it as “an unexpected runaway success”. The Netflix acquisition has upped the game – even if the family themselves don’t quite get what the fuss is all about. “It’s just Netflix eh?” says Kaiora, looking bemused. “We’re not much into all that stuff”.

Being Māori, the images of our loved ones are very sacred, and they shouldn’t be exposed in vain Kaiora Tipene

It’s the summer holidays in New Zealand and Kaiora, 35, has five children to look after (all boys), a glamorous Woman’s Day photo shoot and an inbox clogged with requests from people around the world wanting her and Francis to direct their funerals, or open branches of Tipene funerals in their country.

“A trip to Alaska was tempting,” says Kaiora with her big, warm smile that invites you to tell her everything. “It’s awkward to say, but business is good.”

After three years of sweet-talking from friend and television producer with Southern Pictures, Annabelle Lee-Mather, the Tipenes agreed to film a pilot episode of The Casketeers.

Kaiora told a very reluctant Francis that a straight-up, realistic portrayal of their work could be good for the industry, and help “educate” people about modern-day death in New Zealand, and particularly Māori grief practices: open-caskets, sleeping with the body, and fiery send-offs on marae (tribal meeting grounds).

The producers told the family their personal lives (weight-loss programs, pregnancies and biscuit thefts) would have to be part of the mix – a doco on their work required levity, Kaiora says: “the dark and the light”. It is this combination that has won them so many fans.

“Being Māori, the images of our loved ones are very sacred, and they shouldn’t be exposed in vain, or having any disrespect. Francis was initially a hard no. I saw some benefits, I felt funeral directors were misperceived.”

For Kaiora, the greatest motivation for agreeing was the chance to break down lingering taboos, and introduce viewers to a warmer, funnier side of life’s only certainty.

Kaiora Tipene: “I started talking to the bodies while I was working with them ... That’s how I was able to overcome the whole morbid feeling.” Photograph: Netflix

“I like that we can all let it out with each other. We do cry and we do yell at each other a lot – we’re probably too honest,” says Kaiora, who doesn’t see any of the episodes before they air, and admits they can sometimes cause problems when true feelings – and favourite employees – are revealed.

“But I feel that without any of those moments, we wouldn’t be able to move through our difficult cases. The babies, that young mother being shot in season one … we do need to have that banter to balance our lives.”

Lee-Mather says the doco’s global success is extra special as it was funded by Te Māngai Pāho – an Indigenous funding body tasked with promoting Māori language and culture.

Te reo is used frequently and casually throughout the seasons, with subtitles provided. The Tipene family and some of their staff are fluent speakers, and Kaiora and Francis are often called on to perform cultural practices for bereaved families, including karakia (prayers) and karanga (spiritual summons).

Lee-Mather says the portrayal of the Tipenes is unlike any Māori story seen on the global stage, and the Indigenous beliefs and practices around death have fascinated viewers, and broadened their understanding of life in New Zealand.

“I feel like Francis is the ultimate counterpoint to Jake ‘the muss’ Heke from Once Were Warriors. I am so proud we can show this other representation of a Māori man that is Francis and how wonderful he is,” says Lee-Mather.

“The show is taking the taboo of death away, and making it less frightening and less scary. It has given people an opportunity to talk with their families, ask questions and get a better understanding of it. It is the only thing we all know with certainty – we’re all going to die.”

• The Casketeers is now showing on Netflix