Nga Kakahu - Change & Exchange

Last year I wrote two consecutive entries on this blog - one about the stunning contemporary cloaks of Roka Ngarimu-Cameron, the other about the incredibly beautiful 'cloak-inspired' garments by Pakeha artist, Jo Torr. The two never knew each other and only became aware of each other's work after seeing it here. I love that modern technology can have lovely outcomes like this. And as a result, Roka and Jo are now exhibiting together in Nga Kakaku - Change & Exchange, a stunning exhibition at Pataka Museum of Art and Cultures, in Porirua, near Wellington. The exhibition (catalogue pictured above), celebrates the art of Maori weaving from both a Maori and a Pakeha perspective. If you click on either Jo or Roka's name in the label line below this post, you'll be able to read more about their individual works. in the meantime, if you're in the Wellington area, make time to see the show. www.pataka.org.nz

Maumahara - Remember

Yesterday I introduced the stunning cross-cultural works of Pakeha New Zealander, Jo Torr, which are featured in her exhibition ‘Nga Kakahu (The Cloaks),’ currently showing at Tauranga Art Gallery. (See below). Today, it seemed especially fitting that I follow that up with a Maori perspective on cross-cultural expression – ‘Maumahara / Remember’ Cloaks by Rokahurihia Ngarimu-Cameron (Te Whanau-a-Apanui, Whakatohea, Ngati Awa, Tuwharetoa, Ngati Airihi), which is now showing at Canterbury Museum in Christchurch. Ngarimu-Cameron weaves Maori and Pakeha together by taking traditional Maori off-loom hand-weaving garments into contemporary art practice via adapted European loom weaving techniques. The show is the result of a 2-year project for her Master of Fine Arts programme with the Textiles Section of the School of Art at Te Kura Matatiniki ki Otago (Otago Polytecthnic).

Rokahurihia Ngarimu-Cameron was born in Opotiki in the late 1940’s and was raised by her grandmother, Rokahurihia, and her mother, Te Oti, in a whare ponga on the pā at Hāwai in the rohe (district) of Te Whānau-a-Apanui. (I wrote about Hawai on this blog a week or so ago. Click on it in the label line below to see the marae). The whare (house) that she was raised in had an earth floor, no electricity, no running water, a single door-opening and an outside toilet. Her grandmother, Rokahurihia was then in her seventies. “She was “tuturu Māori” – which meant that we lived in the ways of our ancestors. She could not speak English – so all my verbal communication with her was in Māori. She was a survivor of the Tarawera eruption and a staunch member of the Ringatū church. I bear her name (which means tumbling and turning rocks) and dedicate my mahi (work) to her and to my mother,” writes Ngarimu-Cameron in her degree text.

When you enter into the darkened hall of Canterbury Museum where the exhibition is staged, you can almost feel that sense of history. Ngarimu-Cameron comes from a long line of traditional Maori weavers – four generations of them in fact – and weaving was an integral part of her life growing up at Hawai – not only as an artistic medium but as an essential practical skill that provided everyday essentials like kete (baskets) for food gathering. For her Fine Arts project though, she wanted to experiment and push the boundaries of harakeke (flax) fibre using European technology. To that end, she had to develop a new technique that would enable her to use short lengths of harakeke fibre on a traditional loom – the loom that stood in the corridor outside her Polytech studio space.

“The idea began to take shape that I could make use of the loom in my work for my
Master’s degree. I thought of my tūpuna and the difficulties they had faced and
overcome, and through karakia I consolidated my determination to succeed. I became excited by the possibility of finding ways of retaining my Māori identity by adapting
my treasured Māori methods and resources – in particular whītau (flax fibre) – to use on the
loom. Holding on to my whītau was of prime importance. There were problems to be
solved here. Most workers at the looms used yarn wound on a shuttle which can be
thrown backwards and forwards. The length of strands of whītau is limited by length
of the flax-blade, and a shuttle is impractical. Perhaps for this reason, no-one, as far
as I know, had looked to the loom as a tool for weaving Māori cloaks using whītau,” write Ngarimu-Cameron.

Throughout her art practice, Ngarimu-Cameron has always worked towards reinstating and strengthening traditional tecniques and the use of traditional resources and their preparation. For this body of work she used traditional off-loom
technology and the many techniques involved with this, for example the tāniko technique on the kaitaka; hide preparation; traditional dyeing; and preparation of feathers and fibres. She has a passion for the current renaissance in Māori weaving which she says “preserves and honours the ancient ways of making the artifacts of our material culture.”
“It is through such practices that we remain connected to our traditions. However, it was also important for me to connect with European culture in Aotearoa and also to honour and respect the European components of my own heritage. This found its way into my practice via the use of plaids for tartan patterning,” she writes. For Ngarimu-Cameron, the whole project was very much about bridging the gap between Māori and European culture in Aotearoa / New Zealand. In my view she succeeds beyond expectations. Her cloaks are masterpieces – an intricate interweaving of fibres, threads, feathers, knots and twirls – much of it dyed traditionally using tanekaha (celery pine bark) and paru (black mud) – that left me speechless. And that doesn’t happen often! www.canterburymuseum.com www.rokahurihia.co.nz

Nga Kakahu - The Cloaks

'Ngore' Image Courtesy Jo Torr.

Give Wellington-based artist Jo Torr a needle and thread and she creates small miracles – sculptural gowns of exquisite detail that explore cross-cultural design traditions and the beautiful, inventive surprises that come with material ‘appropriation’ and adaptation. For her latest exhibition at Tauranga Art Gallery, Nga Kakahu (The Cloaks), Torr has created three garments based on 19th century dresses and elements of Maori cloaks. She focuses on the relationship between Maori cloaks and European blankets- a shift from her previous focus on Pacific Island cultures – and she has drawn inspiration from a number of sources including the photographic works of Alfred Burton (1885), showing Maori wearing an array of costumes ranging from woollen blankets, fine cloaks and fashionable European dress – dresses that on closer inspection reveal added adornments such as a muka necklace, a tiki or a huia feather.

'Korowai' Image Courtesy Jo Torr.
“The central theme that runs through my work is that of mutual cultural exchange between Polynesian and European peoples….and each sculpture takes the form of a garment that incorporates an aspect of Polynesian and/or European cloth and an aesthetic sensibility associated with either culture. In this exhibition, the works draw attention to the way both Maori and Pakeha have benefitted from the exchange,” says Torr. She has used white blankets (a metaphor for dressed muka), salvaged from opportunity shops to construct the garments, leaving the existing stains and marks in place as markers of the blankets’ own history.
'Kaitaka' Image Courtesy Jo Torr.
The garments in Nga Kakahu are named for three types of cloak held in high regard in Maori society – Kaitaka, Korowai and Ngore. Torr has adorned each with her own beautiful craftsmanship, adding taniko (woven) borders, pompoms made with muka (dressed flax) and hukahuka (fringe/tassels). Torr’s works “make no pretence to historical accuracy: they are not museum specimens but artworks, an inventive and imaginative response to a moment in our history,” writes Jill Trevelyan in the catalogue essay. Her work is “celebratory in its impulse. Indeed her latest work can be seen as an homage – a Pakeha artist’s homage to the art of Maori weaving and the fine cloak in particular.” Jo Torr works at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and her work is represented in public museums and private collections. Nga Kakahu will show at Tauranga Art Gallery until February 21, 2010. www.artgallery.org.nz