Amokura o te Maori

Tu Tangata, Issue 32, 1 October 1986, Page 2

Amokura o te Maori

The first international exhibition of contemporary maori weaving has opened in London and will then tour Europe for another two years. Entitled Amokura o te Maori, the exhibition consists of 15 items by eight artists.

The weavers are Nora Pikia of Kawhia, Te Aue Davis of Auckland, Puti Hineaupounamu Rare of Auckland, Diggeress Te Kanawa of Oparure, Florrie Berghan of Ahipara, Riria Smith of Ahipara, Emily Schuster of Rotorua and Eddie Maxwell of Whakatane.

The exhibition was organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Aotearoa Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Weavers and the Council for Maori and South Pacific Arts. A variety of woven pieces are presented with two korowai, two piupiu and two wall hangings, a whariki and eight kete made from harakeke, pingao, kiekie, tikouka and muka.

Diggeress Te Kanawa, Aromea Te Maipi and Te Aue Davis were present at the September opening at the Commonwealth Institute in London and also for the two weeks of workshops that followed.

Raranga maori weaving Raranga evolved out of adapting the Polynesian weaving of pandanus leaves to that of the harakeke, New Zealand flax. The similarity of the two leaves enabled the weaving of kete and whariki to be continued. When harakeke was scraped and treated it was found to contain a strong fibre for ropes and after pounding by stone, it made a fibre as soft and lustrous as silk.

Even the arrival of pakeha technology did not greatly affect the methods used by Maori weavers, although ideas for extra patterns were absorbed. New tools were tried and used where applicable.

However nothing has been able to improve on the traditional tools used in the preparation of the raw materials for raranga. The kuku shell is still best for stripping the muka from the harakeke. Wool was used for patterns in korowai but was eventually discarded because it lacked the durability and texture of muka. Dyes from tree bark have proved more durable and are still preferred to the brighter commercial alternatives available.

The weavers represented in this exhibition watched their mothers, grandmothers, aunts and elders working with traditional materials using age-old skills. From this observation they gained a love and respect for the materials used and the craft they chose to follow. They learned to tend and carefully harvest the chosen materials. From the forest came kiekie (freycinetia banksii) and bark for dyes, the plains provided harakeke (phormium tenax) and tikouka (cordyline australis) in plenty

and along the sand dunes grew pingao (desmoschoenus spiralis). Before gathering the materials weavers paid their respects to Tane, God of the Forest, and this practice still continues today.

In recent years there has been a major revival in all craft areas and it has occurred in Maori weaving as well. Raranga fulfills a spiritual need in many people and, because of the desire to retain or regain this part of their cultural heritage, is once more gaining prominence throughout Aotearoa.

Te Aue Davis

Te Aue Davis was born at Waitomo and lived most of her life there. A member of the Ngati Maniapoto and Ngati Maru tribes she now lives in Auckland. Over recent years she has been heavily involved in the conservation of natural materials used for raranga as well as the repair and upkeep of old woven articles in museums.

She says “Because of this my weaving has taken a new direction. I’m concerned with the old patterns and techniques which are now not seen outside of a museum. They need to be brought back and retaught to our people.”

Nora Pikia Nora Pikia lives at Kawhia and is a member of Ngati Hikairo and Ngati Apakura tribes. She was brought up

surrounded by the old Maori traditions and is a tohunga (expert with special skills) in both raranga and waiata (songs and chants).

She says “I have been weaving for as long as I can remember. I’m eighty three now and getting older so I must teach my crafts to the younger people”. And she is doing just that.

Florrie Berghan

Florrie Berghan, daughter of a Yugoslav father and a Maori mother of the Ngapuhi and Ngati Whatu tribes. She lives at Ahipara in the far north of New Zealand. At the age of eleven Florrie was al-

ready a capable weaver. Later she became a master of her craft delighting in each new discovery of technique, style and pattern. She says, “My fingers weave one pattern while another is forming in my mind”.

Puti Hineaupounamu Rare Puti Rare was born and brought up in Te Kuiti. Of Ngati Maniapoto descent she moved to Auckland to live twelve years ago. Throughout her life she was always exposed to flax and activities using it. At first she concentrated on taniko weaving but now it is korowai making that is her speciality.

“I really love cutting the flax, getting it home and stripping it back down to the muka. It’s very significant getting back to the earth and then creating from it. There’s therapy there.”

Eddie Maxwell

Eddie Maxwell belongs to the Ngati Rangiwewehi people and resides in Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty. His desire to weave took him from hui (gathering) to hui where he watched and absorbed processes and patterns. At first he met with reluctance to teach him but he persisted. He began by repairing old whariki. About five years ago he gave up his job to become a full time weaver. He says “I’m one of the few men weaving but I don’t feel out of place. Men have always been involved. I also have a burning desire to do intricate work”.

Catalogue

Raranga is not weaving in the conventional European sense. No loom or like equipment is used. Baskets or mats of unscraped flax, tikouka, kiekie and pingao are plaited. The more intricate taniko technique (the twisting of the weft threads round the warp threads with the fingers) is used to make muka kete and korowai.

Riria Smith

Riria (Lydia) Smith of Pohutiare, a sub-tribe of Te Aupouri, lives at Ahipara at the beginning of the Ninety Mile Beach in Northland. She was the only one of ten children to take up weaving, even though her mother was renowned

for it. Riria prefers working with the undyed flax, using self patterning, kupenga (planned holes) and reversed leaf techniques. She says “There’s something about flax the feel of it. It’s there, growing all around us, we can get it and ...”

Diggeress Rangituatahi Te Kanawa

A member of the Ngati Maniapoto tribe, Diggeress Te Kanawa has lived all her life at Oparure about five miles from Te Kuiti.

A family project she is involved with is the reconstruction of the village Ohaki where working with tourists is combined with the teaching of weaving.

Illness took her away from school at a very early age and gave a sense of inferiority some of my relations who were held up as examples but flax meant a lot to me. It is the one thing I feel really confident in. It’s my thing. I can do it as good as or better than most.”

Emily Rangitiria Schuster

Emily Schuster has lived all her life in Rotorua where she was brought up by Ngatai and Frederick Bubb. A member of Te Arawa tribe, she is a niece of the famous guide Rangi who had a tremendous influence on her. Weaving was such an active part of her life that it is not surprising to find her as craft and guide supervisor at Whakarewarewa village. She often acts world wide as ambassadress for Maori crafts.

She says “As a child I was always being taken by the old people to the bush and to the swamp. It took me four years to condense what I learned from my grandmother to the basics for teaching other Maori women”.