Premiere Award for a Lifetime Commitment to Maori Weaving
Te Waka Toi Media Release
18 November 2006
Internationally renowned Maori weaver, Diggeress Te Kanawa (Ngati Maniapoto) has been announced as the 2006 recipient of Te Waka Toi Maori Arts Board of Creative New Zealand's premiere award, Te Tohu Tiketike o Te Waka Toi. This award is presented to artists who have demonstrated a lifelong contribution to Maori arts and culture and are leaders in their field.
"She is famous for her nurturing and tutoring of the more mature and the very young in the arts of raranga and whatu , kete weaving and cloak making, and her work is known throughout the world," explains Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, chairperson of Te Waka Toi.
"She was raised in the pa harakeke, the flax plantations, of her elders, particularly her mother, Dame Rangimarie Hetet, whose inspiring and exemplary footsteps she followed. Te Waka Toi, and Creative New Zealand, are delighted to present Diggeress with their supreme award, Te Tohu Tiketike o Te Waka Toi, in acknowledgement of her outstanding contribution to the arts, to the nation, and to the people. By accepting this award, she honours us."
For more than fifty years Diggeress Te Kanawa has been at the forefront of the promotion and revival of Maori weaving. "In the old days", she says, "we were told if we shared our knowledge we would lose it...I wanted to share what I had with whoever wanted to learn...I was told if I thought I could carry it, then I had the permission to do so..."
Born in 1920 into a family of weavers, Diggeress was taught from an early age by her mother, Dame Rangimarie Hetet and encouraged by her father, Taonui Hetet. Her father named her in honour of the WWI troops referred to as "diggers". In 1940, Diggeress married Tana Te Kanawa and together they raised twelve children.
Over the years Diggeress Te Kanawa has worked with many weavers, sharing her expertise and knowledge; from her early work in the 1950s with the Maori Women's Welfare League to the continuous involvement with Aotearoa Moananui a Kiwa Weavers, which later became Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa, the National Maori Weavers Collective of New Zealand.
"She is an example of the proud tradition of the whare pora", says Edna Pahewa, the current chairperson of Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa. "She has reached the pinnacle of these teachings, and with such learned ones comes humility. Aunty Digger has achieved so many accolades and awards that she has earned and this award adds to the list."
When asked what receiving the award means to her, Diggeress replied "I'm overwhelmed, weaving and raising a family have been my life".
The award will be presented to Diggeress Te Kanawa at her home marae Te Tokanganui-A-Noho in Te Kuiti on Sunday 19th November 2006. Weaving a Kakahu (1992), an essential "how-to book" by Diggeress has recently been revised and will also be re-launched at the award ceremony.
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For media inquiries please contact Katrina Smit 0211043141 or email katrinasmit@paradise.net.nz