He Maumaharatanga - A Woven Tribute

He Maumaharatanga - A Woven Tribute is an exhibition of contemporary Maori weaving by Kohai Grace and the 1920s archival film which inspired her work.

Consisting of a series of kakahu, kete, and film, Kohai Grace describes her work as “bringing together the old and the new, in celebration of weaving of the past, present and future and its’ continual evolvement as an art form”.

Alongside Grace’s weaving, He Maumaharatanga - A Woven Tribute features the film material that fueled Grace’s research of traditional weaving and inspired the work of the exhibition.

He Pito Whakaatu I Te Noho A Te Mäori I Te Awa Ö Whanganui: Scenes Of Mäori Life On The On The Whanganui River is a film shot by James MacDonald in 1921. A renowned ethnographic and government film maker, McDonald’s camera captured footage of the dyeing and weaving of harakeke (flax). Two years later In 1923 Sir Apirana Ngata sent a delegation from the Dominion Museum to visit the East Coast to obtain records of his people of Ngati Porou. Once agin it was MacDonald who who captured a valuable record of traditional weaving in what became the film He Pito Whakaatu I Te Noho A Te Mäori I Te Tairäwhiti: Scenes Of Mäori Life On The East Coast.

Grace says “The screening of the films within the gallery space becomes an integral part of the exhibition, bringing together the old and historic, along with new interpretations”

Some of the “new interpretations” are made of white plastic strapping, and described by Grace as being “symbolic of the cloak, but also of the poupou (ancestral posts) of the wharenui”

She says “The use of plastic strapping and mainly colours of black and white to create the exhibits was to portray a physical likeness to film strips and the films”

Kohai Grace (Ngati Porou, Ngati Toa, Te Atiawa, Ngati Raukawa) began weaving at the Wellington Arts Centre in 1986. In 1990 she was commissioned by the National Library of New Zealand to produce tukutuku for the Nga Kupu Korero exhibition which toured the country and focused on issues surrounding the Treaty of Waitangi, 150 years after its signing. This followed with a seven year project alongside her whanau of Hongoeka Marae, making tukutuku panels for their wharenui, Te Heke Mai Raro, which opened in 1997.

Event listed by Film Archive

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