Ratahi Tamatea (right) with Christina Chase, who helped weave the whiri whariki they are holding. Photo / Grace Odlum
Ratahi Tamatea (right) with Christina Chase, who helped weave the whiri whariki they are holding. Photo / Grace Odlum
Ratahi Tamatea weaves a lot. She also has a lot of leftover flax scraps.
Using leftover harakeke (flax) to create paper was something she had looked into, but it wasn’t something she could do until recently.
When she was studying her degree in Māori art at Te Wananga oAotearoa in Palmerston North, she did a research paper on Mark Lander, a paper maker based in Amberley.
“Through his research, he had found that through your garden rubbish, you could make paper. And so, he made machines to sort of mulch his compost up to make paper to make these big canvases so that he could make his art.”
Lander brought a couple of those machines up to Tamatea’s Shannon-based shop, and he ran a class for the community on how to make paper out of harakeke.
Tamatea said the harakeke can be turned into thinner or thicker paper, the latter being closer to cardboard.
The paper and cardboard can then be used for lots of different things, and one of the things Tamatea wanted to do with it was create papier mache.
“I think when everyone thinks of making paper it’s just flat pieces of paper and then ... you can make books, and you can make calendars, but I want to take it right away from that and do some really creative things with paper.”
Ratahi Tamatea (right) with two of the people who helped weave the whiri whariki, Christina Chase (left) and Philippa Hakaraia. Photo / Grace Odlum
Tamatea said she would like to put the paper pulp into squeezy bottles so you can draw with it - “It’s really outside the idea of paper how we know it”.
She said the paper could also be used to make room dividers or pou, which are the Māori carvings that you see on the side of meeting houses.
“I don’t want to make paper, but I do want to use it to sort of drive a different direction for Māori art making.”
When Tamatea opened her studio, called Harakeke Ora, at the end of last year, she knew she wanted to get the community involved with her weaving.
She started running sessions where people in the community could meet in her studio to weave together.
For their most recent project, the weavers created a whiri whariki, which roughly translates to “plaited mat”, and it is used for a variety of things.
“We pull them out for more ceremonial stuff, funerals and weddings, special occasions.”
Tamatea said this mat, which they named Te Pawhara Tuna because the mat looks like a sliced-open eel, was made for the community to bring them together and took about 12 weeks to weave.
She said her goal was to teach people how to look after harakeke.
“Our dream for weavers here in Shannon was always to have a place to come and weave. We’re not an establishment teaching everyone how to weave, but we’re sort of an inspirational hub trying to show people what could be accomplished if they’re interested in it.”
