Maori weavers return from US tribal reservation
Toi Maori Aotearoa Media Release 28 June 2006
A delegation of 7 Maori artists has just returned from the Warm Springs tribal reservation in Oregon, USA. The group of Maori weavers and a storyteller attended 10 days of opening ceremonies and participated in artist and cultural exchange, including a large pow-wow celebration, with the local communities of the Federated Tribes of Warm Springs.
They gave artist demonstrations at The Museum at Warm Springs, the fourth and final US venue for the major exhibition of Maori weaving 'Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread.'
The artists attending were:
Edna Pahewa (Rotorua)
Fiona Jones (Hastings)
Morehu Henare (Christchurch)
Noelene Ngawaka-Fortzer (Great Barrier Island);
Ranui Ngarimu (Christchurch)
Tracey Huxford (Levin)
Joe Harawira , storyteller (Huntly)
Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread exhibition is the first major international touring exhibition of traditional and contemporary Maori weaving. It first opened at Pataka Museum in Porirua in 2004, before touring to 2 other New Zealand venues, and then to San Francisco, Salem (Oregon), Seattle (Washington) before reaching Warm Springs. The exhibition will have a major home-coming celebration when it returns to Christchurch Art Gallery in February 2007.
The exhibition has been organised by Pataka Museum in Porirua working in partnership with Toi Maori Aotearoa , Maori Arts New Zealand and Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa (national weavers collective) with major funding from Te Waka Toi, the Maori Arts Board of Creative New Zealand.
Links
Group photo on Yup'ik Mask website. Scroll down the page to see the image under the "Journeys in Creativity" section.