ŌTEPOTI DUNEDIN

The Ōtepoti team work together on the tukutuku panel.

Ōtepoti Dunedin office creates tukutuku panel

WORDS: Rosemary Baird IMAGES: Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga

Designing and creating an office tukutuku panel led the Ōtepoti Dunedin Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga staff into an emotional and immersive experience.

Several years ago, the Ōtepoti team began to discuss creating a tukutuku panel for their new office space as a team building exercise and to engage with Mātauranga Māori. “Initially we were concerned with cultural appropriation as none of us are tangata whenua,” says acting Area Manager Sarah Gallagher. “But with the encouragement of our pouārahi/Māori heritage advisors, Huia Pacey and Nigel Harris, we began to brainstorm ideas about what we wanted to represent in our panel.” Tukutuku panels are a traditional Māori art form; decorative wall panels used as wall partitions and linings inside meeting houses. They are made by creating a latticework of vertically and horizontally placed dried kākaho stalks (the flower stalks of toetoe grass), or rimu/totara slats. The panels are then lashed or stitched together by people working in pairs, one on either side, using pīngao, kiekie or harakeke fibres.

Nigel’s cousin, Tui Falwasser, an experienced Ngāi Tūāhuriri weaver, was engaged to mentor the team in an intensive week-long workshop. The Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga team, together with Tui and Nigel, created a design that incorporated the elements that were important to them. The sky shows the purapura whetū (Milky Way), with a yellow star for each team member pictured. The long descending rectangles are the tears of the albatross which symbolise overcoming adversity. The green pyramid is a poutama design referencing a staircase of knowledge. The bottom pattern represents the whenua. Carved pounamu depicts the Southern Cross and Puaka (a bright blue supergiant star, also known as Rigel, that signals Māori new year to Ngāi Tahu in Te Waipounamu). “Tui dyed everything for us and provided the resources, which was incredible,” says

The dyed fibres provided by Tui. The framed tukutuku panel.

Toi Māori – Traditional Māori art

Poutama – stepped pattern of tukutuku panels symbolising genealogies and various levels of learning and intellectual achievement

Sarah. “She uses contemporary colours using traditional stitches and forms, which worked well for us. We used kiekie, dyed harakeke, pīngao and neinei on rimu rods.”

The first day Tui and the team drew up a pattern grid. “You have to be very careful when you design the pattern that it’s all planned out in terms of stitch placement, colour and materials,” says Nigel. If you don’t get it spot on, it gets out of sequence.” The team also discussed the tikanga and techniques that are part of the process. Weaving the tukutuku panel was a big effort, taking four-and-a-half days. Every member of the Dunedin office took part. Two pairs could work on it at a time: the front person oversaw the design and fed through the fibre, and the back person tied off the fibre and kept it tidy. The team found it a rewarding but challenging experience. They worked eight-hour days Tuesday-Thursday, and on Friday put in a mammoth 16-hour effort. “All the women in our office have some crafting experience in knitting, cross-stitch, tapestry or embroidery, so we were able to use some of those skills,” says Sarah. “It was quite an extraordinary experience as you actually felt like you were right inside the piece of art.” From Nigel’s perspective, the outcome is so much more than a piece of art: “The tukutuku panel is magnificent, but the process was just as important. The interaction between us all and the whakawhanaungatanga that was created from everyone working together was special. The manaaki in the room was so cool. By the end, it was quite an emotional experience for us all.” n

Whenua – land

Pounamu – greenstone Kiekie – thick native vine with long leaves used for weaving Harakeke – New Zealand flax

Neinei – grass tree, known as Māori plastic, traditionally used to weave waterproof items Whakawhanaungatanga – the process of establishing relationships Manaakitanga – showing support, generosity, respect and care for others

Ōtepoti staff polish the greenstone elements for the tukutuku panel.