Toihoukura is again creating history with perhaps the “most exciting delivery of Maori art for indigenous peoples in the world for the last 25 years”.
This time, it is Toihoukura’s weavers who have been part of a project to create 50 panels that will grace the walls of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The project, done under the Jack Lawless Whanau Trust, has been coordinated by master weaver and EIT Tairawhiti lecturer Christina Hurihia Wirihana. She identified 20 weavers from throughout the North Island who then ‘buddied’ up to make a full team of 40.
It has been ongoing since 2010, and since then weavers have been harvesting kiekie from the Waitakere Ranges and pingao from the Gisborne and Rotoiti areas, at times, on a weekly basis.
Eight of those weavers have associations with Toihoukura – Fibre papermaking tutor, Glenda Hape, Lecture Facilitator, Denise Te Hau and Tina are staff. Sisters Fiona and Claudette Collis, and Elizabeth Kerekere are former Te Toi o Ngā Rangi degree students. Current students Te Rangi Kutia-Tataurangi, Ani Leach, and Toni Saddlier complete the Gisborne based team.
“It was a huge honour to secure the project. These weavers are creating history,” says Wirihana.
The tukutuku panels – measuring 1350mm x 650mm x 60 mm –are a mix of contemporary thoughts and interpretations founded by the study and practice of traditional patterns. By engaging this philosophy every weaver has made the panels “uniquely Aotearoa”.
The project has been funded by Te Puni Kokiri and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Many years ago New Zealand gifted a rimu wall to the UN. A visit by MP Pita Sharples revealed a refurbishment of the General Assembly would leave a gap. He then recognised the opportunity for the tukutuku panels.
Prior to the blessing and farewell of the 12 panels associated with the Tairawhiti weavers at Toihoukura’s Maia Gallery, all 50 panels were displayed at Wirihana’s Taurua Marae. The panels will now be stored until it is time for transpiration to New York.
Supporting the panels is a small publication about the narratives of each of the patterns, which Wirihana credited to the EIT research team. A plaque for each pair of panels has the name of the weavers and their whakapapa.
In blessing the panels Toihoukura Associate Professor and Principal Tutor, Derek Lardelli, described the pieces as the most exciting delivery of Maori art for the indigenous peoples in the world for the last 25 years. “These are possibly some of the most significant Maori art forms that have been created in a long time. The panels are representative of all indigenous peoples in the world,” he said.
Each of the weavers spoke about the stories behind their respective panel, what inspired the patterns they each used, history, tradition, the heavens, their culture, the desire to do better and gain more knowledge, the Maunga Hikurangi, personal growth, inter-relations, Sir Apirana Ngata and so much more.
The panels will be stored in New Zealand until being freighted to New York in time for the installation in 2014. It is hoped the artists involved will be on hand for the official blessing and unveiling of them at the United Nations General Assembly.