Wāhine creative director Loren Pasquier brings her touring multi-media exhibition to Hastings. Photo / Supplied
Wāhine creative director Loren Pasquier brings her touring multi-media exhibition to Hastings. Photo / Supplied
Wāhine is a touring multi-media exhibition that amplifies Māori women's voices around Aotearoa.
The exhibition allows communities to be enriched by their life stories while fostering mutual understanding.
From October 8 to 30, The Woven Women Wāhine exhibition will be on show at the Toitoi, Tama Tūranga Huata room inHastings as part of Hawke's Bay Arts Festival.
Wāhine is community-focused, with free entry to anyone wanting to have a look.
In Heretaunga Hastings, Panache Huata Ropitini of Ngāti Kahungunu, Te Arawa, Tūhoe joins the kaupapa and the exhibition's journey around the North Island.
Panache said a piece of advice she is often offering wāhine Māori is to dish out the mātauranga or knowledge they have.
"We can't just hold a part of what is being said to us. You know, we need to give everything, whatever we share, we need to share it all," Panache said.
Heretaunga Hastings local Panache Huata Ropitini of Ngāti Kahungunu, Te Arawa, Tūhoe to join the Wāhine kaupapa and the exhibition's journey around the North Island. Photo / Supplied
Through personalised sound stories and portrait photography, Wāhine is an immersive exhibition inviting communities to come together, be inspired, and learn from the raw, honest, and vulnerable stories of Māori women.
Stories touch on their joys and inspirations, their troubles and tribulations, and the resilience that has moulded them into the women they are.
The words of each interview are woven with real-life recordings captured by the women themselves and exhibited alongside a photography portrait of each wāhine.
As part of the exhibition experience, audio guides with headphones are provided.
The public is also welcome to bring headphones and smartphones to access the audio stories via QR code.
Wāhine creative director Loren Pasquier hopes that by creating her work, wāhine will inspire empathy for the stories they hear and reflect that same empathy onto ourselves.
Wāhine debut exhibition in Nelson drew in big crowds now set to do the same in Hastings. Photo / Supplied
"Because I do believe it is through empathy and respect that we can start to acknowledge each other," Pasquier said.
While it travels around Aotearoa, Wāhine expands each time it changes locations by inviting a wāhine from local iwi to join the kaupapa and hold space for the other women.
Hawke's Bay is the first of eight North Island centres to exhibit Wāhine.
Between 2022 and 2023, Wāhine will also be on show in Hamilton, Whangārei, Auckland, Rotorua, Palmerston North, New Plymouth and Wellington.
Panache's story will join eight other wāhine who shared their stories and toured the South Island.
By holding a sacred space for women to share their experiences, the Wāhine exhibition hopes to inspire compassion in everyone and ignite a wider sense of belonging, community, and togetherness.
The exhibition will be open on October 8-13, Tue-Sun 10am-4 pm, and October 14-30, Tue-Sun 11am-6 pm.
