Introducing Maori Lifestyles

A Waikato Favourite

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:31:00 +0000

This is one of my favourite photographs of Turangawaewae House in Ngaruawahia, near Hamilton in the Waikato region of the North Island. You can read more about the house and its history by clicking on Turangawaewae House in the label lines below. It sits just of the town's main street, on the opposite side of the river to Turangawaewae Marae.

A Northern Marae

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:24:00 +0000

I was running late when I drove into Pahiatua last year but I did find two minutes to nip down a side road and take these three quick shots of Pahiatua Marae, on the outskirts of the small Manawatu town of Pahiatua.

At Koriniti Marae - Whanganui River Region

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:32:00 +0000

Koriniti Marae is nestled into a pretty hollow just above the Whanganui River. It's a lovely marae with a selection of fascinating buildings, including a cute-as-a-button church. I took these photographs llast time I visited the marae, in 2010.

The Whare Karakia - literally, the House of Prayers.

Carving Detail

Painted kowhaiwhai detail above the mahau (front porch) of one of the wharenui (meeting houses). Kowhaiwhai patterns vary from tribe to tribe (iwi to iwi) and many iwi have patterns that are unique to their area. Each pattern has a deep spiritual significance and is used to help illustrate the mana (power/status) of the house.

Gate Carving at the entrance to the marae complex

Kowhaiwhai Detail

Tekoteko detail on one of the wharenui. The tekoteko stands at the top of the house and represents the mana whenua of an iwi or hapu. It often represents a particular hapu or iwi ancestor.

Kowhaiwhai Detail

Visitors are welcome at Koriniti and you are able to take photographs of the exterior of the marae buildings. It pays to ring ahead though, so you don't arrive in the middle of a tangi (funeral) or some other marae event. http://www.koriniti.com/

Maori Place Names - 102

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:33:00 +0000

Waitotara

Taranaki, North Island

2010 Ajr

A Sense of Community

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:32:00 +0000

Like many Christchurch residents, Master Carver and Moko artist, Riki Manuel has been displaced by the earthquakes. He previously operated out of his own studio and gallery at the Christchurch Arts Centre but as that has now closed for several years for earthquake repairs, he has had to review his operation. He took the opportunity to relaunch his business at the recent Aranui AFFIRM Festival that was staged in December in Aranui.

The Aranui Community Trust staged its 10th AFFIRM Aranui Family Festival On Saturday December 3. It’s one of the biggest family festivals in Christchurch and this year, over 3,000 people turned up on a baking hot day, to take part in games and to watch a succession of stage events from local schools, culminating in performances by world champion hip-hop artists, New Zealand’s Common Ground and headline act, hip hop-soul star Ladi 6, (Karoline Tamati), who grew up in Aranui and is just back from singing in Europe

It was a brilliant day of family fun, once again highlighting the fact that community spirit is alive and well in Aranui despite their earthquake hardships.

Even the police - often as heavily tattoed as the locals - joined in the community spirit, chatting with locals as they kept an oderly eye on proceedings.

Ladi6 was a resounding hit at the end of the day

The young made their own fun

And everyone did their best - by whatever means - to shelter from the heat of the day.

Portrait - 47

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:09:00 +0000

Arama Cooper, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, Christchurch

Spotted at AFFIRM Aranui Family Festival

Christchurch, Dec 2011

From the Tattoo Files

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:05:00 +0000

Seen at the 10th AFFIRM Aranui Family Festival,

Aranui, Christchurch

December 3, 2011.

Maori Place Names - 101

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:05:00 +0000

Turakina

North Island

To Market, To Market

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 04:27:00 +0000

Over 250 Maori artists gathered in Porirua, near Wellington at the beginning of October, for the biggest-ever MAORI ART MARKet. The event brought together contemporary painters, clay and glass workers, weavers, carvers, jewellers, ta moko artists, musicians, story-tellers and film makers as part of the REAL New Zealand Festival, which has run alongside the Rugby World Cup. One of those taking part this year, was Curator for the weaving displays, Tracy Huxford (Te Atiawa/Ngati Tama), who is shown here setting up work by Rototua master weaver, Teresa Murray. Murray’s Rapaki (shoulder cape) includes turkey and peacock feathers, woven harakeke and non-traditional dyes.

Top chef, Rex Morgan (centre) was joined by two trainee Maori chefs, Thomas McBride from Porirua (right) and Graham Snelgar from Grenada (left), both students at Whitireia Polytechnic. Morgan ran cooking demonstrations at the Market, based around contemporary Maori food, which included the use of tradition favourites like titi (muttonbird) and karengo (seaweed). He also gave away the secrets to achieving the subtle hangi flavours in a contemporary way, producing food delicately infused with the mildly smoky flavours of hangi feasts on the marae. Morgan, who is a business partner and chef at Wellington’s classy Boulcott Street Bistro, is a regular on New Zealand television food shows, he’s won every major New Zealand culinary award, is the consultant chef to Air New Zealand, and he has travelled the world cooking for members of the Royal family, European presidents and the world’s rich and famous.

Jo Kingi of Omeka Leather, Dunedin has both Maori and Celtic blood, which is reflected in her range of leather bags, embellished with carved Celtic knots and Maori koru designs.

Contemporary Maori clay artist, Carla Ruka attracted the crowds with her exhibition of Maori Angel clay pieces. Auckland-based Ruka was introduced to clay as a medium back in 2000 and she’s never looked back. “I love the journey that comes from creating my visions from Papatuanuku – from the earth to the creation to the firing, everything is an exciting event and you’re forever learning,” she says.

Well known Maori artists, Para Matchitt (top, above), Bay Ridell (centre) and Barry Te Whatu were also among the wide range of exhibitors. Wellingtonian, Barry te Whatu, who is mentor to emerging artists at Weltec and a carving teacher at Te Kuru, exhibited a new body of work – Potaka, or spinning tops, made from marble and New Zealand native wood and embellished with bone and stone.

“The Maori Art market is about coming together. It’s not often we see senior artists alongside emerging artists like myself,” or that we get the opportunity to create bridges with other cultures. It’s always an honour to be invited,” he says.

In addition to local Maori artists, the market also featured works by invited international artists, among them, Dan Namingha from USA, Danny Eastwood from Australia, Filipe Toho, a New Zealand Tongan, Fat Feu’u a New Zealand Samona, documentary film maker, Peter Coates and Bunmei Okabe from Japan.

http://www.maoriartmarket.com/

All images supplied by the Maori Art Market.

Portrait - 46

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:44:00 +0000

One the Beach

At Kaikoura

Feb.2010 Ajr.

Traditional Crafts

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:58:00 +0000

Tools

Hand Hewn

In Pounamu

Nov.2010. Ajr

Maori Place Names - 100

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:38:00 +0000

North of New Plymouth

Taranaki

2010 Ajr

Portrait - 45

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:41:00 +0000

Tamaki Maori Village

Rotorua

May 2010 Ajr

From the Kete Files

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:55:00 +0000

Two Kete

Waiting for a New Home

Village Life Re-Enacted

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Tamaki Maori Village near Rotorua is an excellent place to see how a traditional Maori village may have looked hundreds of years ago. The night tour takes you south of the city and into the brooding darkness of a small forested site, where the Tamaki brothers have re-created a traditional village, complete with contemporary lighting and local Maori dressed as they would have been in the old days. The local people reenact the various traditional tribal roles including the arts of tattoo, weaving, song and dance and story telling.I was amused by the number of international tourists on the night I visited, who thought this was a real village and that the 'actors' always dressed this way.

Maori Place Names - 99

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Ratana

Near Whanganui, North Island

2010 Ajr

From the Kete Files

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:54:00 +0000

When Traditional Kete

Meet Photographic Technology

Exploring Maori Rock Art

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:00:00 +0000

I travelled down to Timaru and South Canterbury in February, to visit the new Te Ana Ngai Tahu Rock Art Centre. I've written about the centre itself previously (click on Te Ana Rock Art Centre in the label line below), so this time I'm focussing on one of the many South Canterbury rock art sites, that you can now tour through the Rock Art Centre.

This is a well known site on Craigmore Station at Maungati - that can only be accessed via the Te Ana tours.

The landscape is impressive - rolling green hills and craggy limestone outcrops as far as the eye can see.

We were taken to the location by Ngai Tahu Rock Art Trust curator, Amanda Symon, who spoke of the enigmas of rock art discovered so far, in over 500 South Island locations - 95% of them on private land. She led us down steep paths and into a large overhang, where rock drawings completed hundreds of years ago are still clearly visible.

On this particular site, some of the ancient drawings were 'enhanced' during the 1940s by well known artist, Theo Schoon. Schoon, born in Java to Dutch parents, emigrated to New Zealand with his family in 1939. During the late 1940s he began observing and cataloguing many of the South Island rock art sites and, in some cases, he drew over them to enhance them. Wherever he did this, he also left his signature. On Craigmore, that signature (above), is tucked around the corner from the main cavern - as hidden as the drawings themselves would once have been.

As well known as some of these sites now are, visiting them is still a special experience. Sitting there, in the deep and all-pervasive silence, it's hard not to wonder about the lives and times of the original Maori travellers who created these enigmatic marks and symbols on the limestone cave walls.

If you're in Timaru, the Te Ana Rock Art Centre is definitely worth visiting - and, if you have the time, take one of the tours for a first-hand look at these precious taonga.

http://www.teana.co.nz/

Conserving Taonga For the Future

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 14:25:00 +0000

Back in February, several Awarua runanga members gathered at Te Rau Aroha Marae at Bluff to attend a two-day workshop on taonga and korowai conservation, run by Wellington-based freelance conservator, Rangi Te Kanawa (Ngati Maniapoto), who is on leave from her role as Textile Conservator at the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa

Stories of treasured taonga being stored in unlikely and often very damaging places are not new to Rangi Te Kanawa. She’s spent twelve years visiting iwi all around New Zealand in the hope of saving as many taonga as she can.
“Whanau usually keep their taonga close because they know they’re precious but I’ve heard of them being folded and tucked away in the back of cupboards or under beds. I remember one case of a Rarotongan cape – now in Te Papa’s Pacific Gallery under push button lighting – coming to me for restoration. It had been folded and folded and stored in a Griffin’s biscuit box but the rats had gotten into it.”

Gavin Reedy (Ngati Porou), is Te Papa’s National Services Te Paerangi Iwi Development Officer, who coordinates workshops like these all around New Zealand and often travels with Rangi. He too, has seen taonga emerge from unexpected places.

“This workshop is all about helping iwi take care of taonga that are held in homes, on marae, stuffed in boxes, or in attics. One lady up north brought in a beautiful kahu kiwi stuffed in a rubbish bag. Rangi has seen a 300 year-old cloak in the Far North but you only see those sorts of things if the iwi and whanau trust you. That’s why we see these workshops as a cornerstone, a beginning. It’s about building relationships with iwi, to see where they’re at in relationship to their heritage and culture and, depending on their needs, we then run workshops in either textile conservation, digital photography (so iwi can record and preserve their marae photos in case of fire), building a taonga database, or paper conservation to protect things like whakapapa papers, kaumatua diaries and Maori Battalion souvenirs,” he says.

“The important thing about all the workshops is that we teach our people to teach others. We can’t go to every marae, so we tell them how to get the funding, where to buy materials and then we visit them with the best tutors we can find to teach them the skills they need to pass on.”

Rangi Te Kanawa says iwi react to the workshops with intense interest. They share their experiences; they talk of taonga and whakapapa; and they leave with a renewed sense of pride.

“It’s lovely to go onto marae and have people bring in their taonga – which we often transform from stressed, tired or damaged treasures into a piece that looks like new. I’ve seen tears fall when cloaks have been cleaned and repaired, and put into their new boxes. Most whanau truly care about their taonga but they don’t always know how to physically care for them. My job is to get the word out there – roll, don’t fold and don’t use handles to hang garments; and store your cloaks, piupiu, kete and whāiki in acid-free boxes.

“There are those who want to have their treasures on display, not shut away in boxes; but the majority, once they see the cushioning, safe environment of the boxes, accept that this is the best way to give their treasures a much longer life – sometimes fifty to a hundred years longer life. People can always put photographs of the items on the outside of the box, or have a replica made that they can use and display, knowing the original will last for future generations to enjoy.”

Rangi comes from a long line of traditional Maori weavers. Her mother was Diggeress Rangituatahi Te Kanawa (1920-2009) and her grandmother was Dame Rangimārie Hetet (1892-1995) – both of whom dedicated their lives to the promotion and preservation of traditional Maori weaving arts. Diggeress Te Kanawa was also one of the co-founders of the Aotearoa Moananui-a-Kiwa Weavers Association in 1983, which was the driving force behind Rangi’s own conservator’s training.

“It all happened after the Te Maori exhibition in the early 1980s. There was a growing awareness then, of the need for Maori to be involved in the preservation and conservation of taonga, and Aotearoa Moananui-a-Kiwa were approached to find someone to train. They found me,” says Rangi.

“I was at home in Oparure, near Te Kuiti and in my early 30s at the time and when my mother got the call, she nominated me. I grew up surrounded by weavers and I also weave, so I took up the challenge.”

After studying conservation at Canberra College of Advanced Education in Australia, Rangi’s passion for conservation was ignited. She speaks of “a tremendous feeling of accomplishment” that comes with every successful project or workshop.

“Conservation makes for fabulous before and after treatments but more than that, you know you have helped arrest the degradation of a treasure, that you’ve upheld the integrity of the taonga and its wairua, its history, its stories. There’s a very real sense of pleasure of giving and iwi receiving, of them grasping the idea that if they roll a garment, it won’t be damaged by fold lines.

“That’s like an awakening and when they rest their cloak into a box they’ve made themselves, there’s a feeling that the taonga has been given the special attention it commanded, that it’s become a part of them and an item of even greater value for that. It gives them peace of mind knowing that the archival box they’ve created has provided the best storage that can be had and that their taonga can now safely be handed down through the generations. The workshops also bring communities together and the kaupapa is great. I love it.”

From the Kete Files

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 14:51:00 +0000

Kete of Many Colours

Portrait - 44

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:32:00 +0000

Ngai Tahu Hui-a-Tau

Karitane

November 2010, Ajr

From the Kete Files

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 14:49:00 +0000

A Break from Tradition

Many Coloured Kete

Visiting Palmerston North

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Te Hoto Manawa o Rangitane o Manawatu

July 2010 Ajr

Traditional Kai - Karengo

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Karengo is a member of the Porphyra species of edible seaweeds and is eaten throughout the world. It is closely related to Japanese nori and Welsh laver and is highly prized by South Island Māori. It is listed as a Ngāi Tahu taonga in the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 and during World War II, dried karengo was sent to the Māori Battalion in the Middle East and soldiers chewed it while they were on the march.

I visited Onuku marae, near Akaroa recently, where karengo is a seasonal delicacy.

Every spring, between July and september, the locals on the kaik, go down to the rocky shore and gather the brown seasweek off the rocks. A bulk harvest of karengo was traditionally dried in the sun. But if they want to eat it the same day, they pan dry it. To cook it hinu (mutton fat) or butter, is added and it's cooked slowly, with small amounts of water added over a two hour period. “Karengo is not easy to cook. It’s tough and it takes a long time to make it soft but it’s worth the effort,” the locals say.

The day I visited, they added cream to the cooked karengo mixture for extra richness and flavour and this is placed in the tiny filo cases and set aside.

Eel, or tuna, was also on the menu, along with titi (mutton bird), and both were given a modern twist in sushi.

Many of the Onuku whanai have been going to nearby Te Roto o Wairewa between March and May since hthey were young and they're familiar with all the old ways of tuna gathering.

“We hook them out of the canals into the pararu and on a good night we’ll get around 200. They’re gutted, washed in the sea and then hung by flax threaded through their gills. With their tails cut off they bleed out; then they’re deboned, salted and dried on hooks in the whata above the beach by the marae. These days the eels are then frozen or smoked and stored ready for use,” they say.

From the Kete Files

noreply@blogger.com (Adrienne Rewi) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 14:47:00 +0000

Colourful Kete

On Display