{"id":632888,"date":"2026-10-16T23:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632888\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T23:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:26:12","slug":"exhibition-celebrates-six-generations-of-hetet-and-te-kanawa-weaving-whanau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632888\/","title":{"rendered":"Exhibition celebrates six generations of Hetet and Te Kanawa weaving wh\u0101nau"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six generations of the Hetet and Te Kanawa weaving wh\u0101nau whose work helped safeguard raranga and take it to the world stage<\/a> are being celebrated in a new exhibition in Hamilton.<\/p>\n

R\u012bpoi Anamata, R\u012bpoi Inamata brings more than 180 years of that legacy together at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum and Gallery, from Mere Te Rongop\u0101mamao Aubrey to Dame Rangim\u0101rie Hetet, Diggeress Te Kanawa and their descendants.<\/p>\n

“We grew up with flax in the house<\/a>, being in the house, and busy hands … that was a natural thing,” said Ata Te Kanawa (Ng\u0101ti Maniapoto) one of Diggeress Te Kanawa’s daughters and part of the working group on this exhibition.<\/p>\n

Ata Te Kanawa said museums had always been a familiar environment for the wh\u0101nau because her mother and grandmother were always exhibiting.<\/p>\n

“Even if we didn’t quite understand what they were doing at the time, as we were growing up, certainly now, it’s a real stop and take heart of the work, their dedication, their commitment, their patience, and their foresight.”<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo from the R\u012bpoi Anamata, R\u012bpoi Inamata Exhibition showing some of the cloaks made by the Te Kanawa and Hetet wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n

Supplied\/Te Whare Taonga o Waikato<\/p>\n

Te Kanawa said the theme of the exhibition was to draw a correlation between portraits and k\u0101kahu.<\/p>\n

One of the portraits features a third-and fourth-generation mokopuna wearing korowai woven for tamariki by their kuia, Dame Rangim\u0101rie Hetet.<\/p>\n

Te Kanawa said it was based on a portrait of their kuia and her older sister at 16 and 18 years old respectively.<\/p>\n

“Both of them [the mokopuna] go to a wharekura, both have got reo, they’re very strong, they’re very assertive, and we wanted to capture that. So we kind of coach them to have a resting face, to own the space, to own who they are, as opposed to portraying them to be delicate, sweet, smiling petals, of which they are not.”<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo from the Ripoi Anamata, Ripoi Inamata Exhibition showing a close up of the cloaks.<\/p>\n

Supplied\/Te Whare Taonga o Waikato<\/p>\n

There were over 25 k\u0101kahu in the exhibition from across the generations of the wh\u0101nau. Ata Te Kanawa said that included one made from dingo by a niece in Australia and one gifted to opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa.<\/p>\n

Ata Te Kanawa recalled a fundraiser at the wh\u0101nau homestead to raise money for Kiri to go to London for training.<\/p>\n

“My sister and I, we can remember hiding under the piano or near the piano with our fingers and in our ears, because no one in the room had ever experienced opera singing before. So that was kind of funny, everybody, all the nannies nodded and smiled as if they liked it, but they probably didn’t.”<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo of Haut\u0101miro: Bound by the Winds, an installation by the Mataaho Collective.<\/p>\n

Supplied\/Te Whare Taonga o Waikato<\/p>\n

Waikato Museum curator Maree Mills (Ng\u0101ti T\u016bwharetoa) told RNZ the museum had a long relationship with the wh\u0101nau, with the work of Rangim\u0101rie and Digeress exhibited in the past.<\/p>\n

“They were such committed teachers, and such committed women to continuing the craft of weaving, that in their own wh\u0101nau, they’ve got children and grandchildren, their nieces, all still weaving and teaching weaving as well. And that’s also celebrated in the exhibition.”<\/p>\n

Presented alongside the exhibition is Haut\u0101miro: Bound by the Winds, a monumental installation by the award winning Mataaho Collective<\/a>.<\/p>\n

R\u012bpoi Anamata, R\u012bpoi Inamata and Haut\u0101miro: Bound by the Winds are on display at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum and Gallery from 16 October 2026 – 7 March 2027. Entry is free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six generations of the Hetet and Te Kanawa weaving wh\u0101nau whose work helped safeguard raranga and take it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-632888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}