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Earlier this year, 13 of the country's senior Māori weavers gathered at the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa in Wellington as part of the International Festival of the Arts, Festival 2000. Over the next week, the public were able to talk to the weavers while they worked onsite on kakahu (Cloaks) and other projects.
Cath Brown from Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa, (the weaver's committee of Toi Māori Aotearoa) says the exhibition's name came from one of the country's best known weavers, Diggeress Te Kanawa.
When asked what the weavers would do to celebrate the year 2000. Cath jokingly said they'd love to weave the world together, but realised this could be possible using their overseas contacts. "On a particular day we would say to all our contacts and all our weavers in New Zealand, just choose some part of the day and sit and weave, and though we can't be together physically, spiritually our wairua will reach out and we'll actually weave the whole world together because we're doing this thing we all love doing".
During Nga Here o Te Ao, some of the weavers worked together to create a kakahu which will be taken to New Caledonia for display during the South Pacific Festival of the Arts later this year. The kakahu was woven using a new technique, called he huarahi hou (the new way) initiated by
Diggeress Te Kanawa.
Once in danger of dying out, weaving has undergone a revival and is now in good heart as a living art form. It's also getting the respect many have argued it deserves relative to other Māori art forms such as carving.
While some weavers are experimenting with new materials and techniques, others like Flora and Te Ana Reiri are keeping old traditions alive. The pair are thought to be the only weavers still using the bark from the houhi (lacebark) tree to produce cloaks.
Maintaining supplies of materials is a big concern for the weavers, who grow and exchange plants and work with the Conservation Department and other organisations to obtain feathers and other materials.