default-output-block.skip-main
Indigenous | Arts

Māori artist collective eager to revive customary Māori sewing

Mata Aho Collective artists (L-R) Erena Baker, Sarah Hudson, Bridget Reweti and Terri Te Tau with their Kiko Moana art installation created using customary Māori sewing techniques. Photo/David Parry.

A collective of wāhine Māori artists, eager to revive customary Māori sewing techniques, is in Paris this weekend for a prestigious art symposium.

The Mata Aho Collective is in Europe with several other Māori and Pasifika artists for Oceania exhibition’s special weekend hosted by Quai Branly Museum – Jacques Chirac, Paris which is renown for its focus on indigenous art and cultures.

"We're interested in bringing to light the lesser-known practice of Māori sewing," says the Mata Aho Collective.

The Mata Aho Collective with their 11m x 4m 'Kiko Moana' art installation at the Oceania exhibition at London's Royal Academy. Photo/David Parry.

The four wāhine Māori, who prefer to be known as a collective rather than individual artists, say the techniques used to create their 'Kiko Moana' artwork, which they are in Paris to discuss, is based on research made into customary Māori sewing techniques.

“When we mention our research into bone needles, people kind of assume that they were after European contact but that’s not actually the case. They’ve been dug up in archaeological digs, they are pre-colonial, they are customary," the group says.

The collective is the vision of Erena Baker (Te Atiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangātira), Sarah Hudson (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe), Bridget Reweti (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi) and Terri Te Tau (Rangitāne ki Wairarapa).

Together, the wāhine, who live in different areas of the North Island but meet up once a month to wānanga about their art, created the 11m x 4m art installation, drawing on traditional Māori sewing practices.

"Museums across Aotearoa and the world hold potentially thousands of pre-colonial Māori bone needles but there are very few examples of what was sewn. Raranga is an example of a practice that's been kept alive and is thriving. We're interested in bringing to light the lesser-known practice of Māori sewing in the hopes of finding others who are passionate about investigating more."

The Mata Aho Collective told the Royal Academy about the techniques involved in creating their installation. Source/YouTube. 

The installation has 16 layers and is made from 60 tarpaulins, sewn on an angle and then slashed.

"We created the work out of blue tarp from our local hardware stores because we make work out of everyday materials we see used in our Māori communities. Using art materials that are recognisable and accessible to our whānau is something that's really important to us."

The spectacular art piece hung in the opening room of the Oceania exhibition at London's Royal Academy, where the exhibition opened in October 2018, until shifting to Paris earlier this year with 200 other artworks for the French showing of the art.

The conceptual basis of the work is centred on the idea of taniwha.

"Taniwha are guardians so they oversee, or take care or look out for different waterways. We wanted to make the work about the waterways where we're from but also the wider global situation," the collective told the Royal Academy.

"We were kind of thinking, what would this creature look like if it needed to combat poor water quality? It would need to have really tough skin. With the tarp being plastic, we thought that would be perfect."

The wāhine say the taniwha concept has given them the strength to show their art piece internationally.

"We gathered taniwha tales from our friends and whānau that spoke about taniwha as kaitiaki, taniwha as communicators and taniwha as travellers. The narratives our community shared with us are imbued into the work. We feel the themes that revealed themselves through these narratives built a strong kaupapa for us to travel with this work for our first overseas exhibition as a collective."

The collective's taniwha narratives are one of Te Papa Tongarewa Museum's first digital acquisitions. Source/www.kikomoana.com

The collective has put the narratives about taniwha on their website www.kikomoana.com for people to read. The wāhine say that this online piece, which compliments their installation, is one of Te Papa Tongarewa Museum's first digital acquisitions.

At the symposium, which ends on Sunday in Paris, the collective discussed how their practice is built on the role of tuakana-teina relationships (inter-generational mentorship), researching taonga Māori within museum collections and collaboration informed by indigenous methodologies.

The wāhine say that as part of their research for the installation, they invited Dr Patricia Te Arapo Wallace to join them during the making of Kiko Moana to share some of the research she has done into traditional Māori sewing over several decades.

The collective is eager to learn more about traditional Māori sewing and will visit Otago Museum to view a sewing kit found in an archaeological dig. Photo/Supplied.

The collective plans to continue filling their kete with knowledge about customary Māori sewing practices.

"We are hoping to head down to Dunedin in the summer. At Otago Museum they have a sewing kit that was found [during an archaeological dig], this little sort of muka bag that had all sorts of different needles inside. So we’re hopefully going to get to go and have a look at that soon.”

Ten contemporary visual artists from Aotearoa have their work included in the Oceania exhibition - Mata Aho Collective, Fiona Pardington (Ngāi Tahu), Lisa Reihana (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine, Ngāi Tū), Michael Parekowhai ( Nga-Ariki, Te Aitanga-A- Mahaki and Rongowhakata), John Pule, Yuki Kihara and Mark Adams.