Te Ohanga Ake is a PHD exegesis exhibition describing visually, intergenerational knowledge exchange through Māori fibre arts.
Te Kanawa, based in Te Kuiti, acknowledges her mother Diggeress Te Kanawa and her kia, Rangimarie Hetet as her primary sources of knowledge and innovation. Te Kanawa remembers on of her mum’s says that epitomises her weaving process. “Mum always said this to our whānau…”
“Tō tātou waka, ko te rangimārie, te hoe o runga, te puna o te aroha e!”
“Our waka is the waka of peace, the paddle that propels us forward is the source of love from above!”
Te Ohonga Ake is an exquisite collection of kete, kākahu, pot, whāriki, tīpare, tukutuku, piupiu and kono, created between 1970 and today. The extensive grouping of taonga on display accentuates Te Kanawa’s development of her own creative processes and innovations.
The highlight within the collection of work is Te Kanawa’s personal challenge to re-create a pūkoro based on a taonga from the Otago Museum Collection.
“This was something that caught my eye. I was drawn not only to its weave and use, but I wanted to disparage its description given by an early European who tossed it aside as a rag!”
In addition to Te Kanawa’s own work, she has included some beautiful taonga created by her mother, grandmother and great grandmother, some of which they worked on together as a whānau.
“Mum and Nana, always said to me as we were working together – let your mahi speak for you”
This exhibition does just that. It shares the exchange that happens between whānau members when working in and sharing the intricacies of traditional art forms and processes. Mauri ora!
Pirates and princesses welcome at the Te Awamutu Museum for Children’s Day 7th March 2021!
As part of Children’s Day 2021, March 7, the Te Awamutu Museum has programmed several activities around the street block for all the pirates and princesses attending this year’s pantomime – ‘The Pirate and the Princess’.
Tui & Tama’s Tamariki Trail is supported by Oranga Tamariki, Children’s Day national coordinators, Countdown and local business Hoops & Scoops. For any children and families waiting for the show can stroll up to the Museum and participate in some free, creative and cool activities like –
Pirate and princess face painting,
Pirate and princess badge making and,
Make a pirate patch or princess crown.
Anne Blyth Museum’s and Heritage Director is excited about the opportunity to open to the public, especially for children’s day on the Sunday “The Museum Team is really looking forward to joining the Children’s Day celebrations for the first time this year. The team have some awesome activities planned and are excited to join the other local community services to in celebrating this important day.”
The Museum will be open from 9am-1pm Sunday 7th March, with the participation of the New Zealand Fire Service, The New Zealand Police and the FREE children’s day play on the same block.
It is set to be loads of fun so if you’re attending the pantomime check out Te Awamutu Museum’s Face Book event posts and come into the Museum to pick up your free treasure map showing you what and where each activity will be on the day.
Look out for the free vouchers and spot prizes!
Any queries please contact the Te Awamutu Museum 07 8720085 or email museum@waipadc.govt.nz
Our latest exhibition is what I would like to call a rapid response show- one that was created on a very short timeline in response to what is happening in the world around us the moment.
Formal Friday became a whimsical trend in New Zealand during our response to Covid-19 global pandemic.
We’ve heard it all before; we went into lockdown for weeks on end, we were asked to work from home, we socially distanced, we shrunk our social bubbles and started living in our comfy gear. Whether this was all day in active wear, rotating the same pair of trackpants, or refusing to put on “real clothes.”
In effort to break up the monotony New Zealand moved from casual Fridays at the office, to Formal Fridays at home. All championed by our very own TV personality Hilary Barry!
Wearing Formal wear on Fridays uplifted our spirits, got us looking in our closets for our best glad rags and made Friday meetings on zoom something to look forward to.
The movement of #FormalFridayswent viral with up to 40,000 tags alone on Instagram and many others taking part across other social media channels.
At Te Awamutu Museum we chose to harness this energy to ignite our own textile collection by creating a show that spans from the 1830s until today, and show what Formal Friday has meant to different people over time. Whether this is through the ceremonial outfits, what we once wore as daily attire, our uniforms or our best wears to church on a Sunday.
For our attempt at developing and creating a rapid response show and getting it all together in 6 weeks, we are pretty proud with how it all came together!
Here’s a video by our Megan Denz (Collections Manager) showing you some highlights from the exhibition.
Due to popular demand, we have extended this exhibition and will add new components to it. Watch this space!
Our most recent acquisition to the collection is a Whāriki from renowned weaver Kahutoi Te Kanwana, from her exhibition “Te Ohanga Ake” recently held at Te Awamutu Museum.
Images of whāriki mount made from recycled exhibition stools
Typically Whāriki are housed flat or hung up, but due to our limited space it was decided the best plan was to roll, the woven kiekie was tested for its durability and suitability for this method of storage.
The first step was to create a core for the whariki to be rolled onto, and we did this by “upcycling” old Museum stools, and covering these in ethafoam to create a deep and sturdy base. The next step was to cover the core in Tyvek to create a barrier between the object and the foam core. Tyvek is used as it is a pH neutral material that offers waterproofing, mitigation from dust, breathable and suitable for most Museum objects.
After preparing the base, I used extra Tyvek to roll the Whāriki on to, meaning that every revolution of the Whāriki had a barrier layer, and minimised any friction that may occur between the fibres. The whāirki is maurua (double joined) and required extra padding along the way, ‘tissue sausages’ were added to prevent any lumps or bumps being transferred between the layers. The last touch was to add Tyvek bows to hold it all together.
We have just installed “Resilience Resistance and Remembrance” exhibition on the Front Porch Gallery, just in time for Waikato War commemorations. This exhibition gives an overview to how Aotearoa New Zealand adopted Rā Maumahara, New Zealand Day of Commemorations 28th October, revealing Waipā district’s connection to the Waikato Wars and the local school students that carried the kaupapa vision of change.
This year there will be objects from the collection connected to Ngāti Apakura as part of the Resilience Resistance and Remembrance exhibit and in the Tangata Whenua Gallery. Come check it out!
