Tūrangi artist and designer Paretuiri Simeon with some of her machine-made kakahu, intended as family heirlooms. Photo / Laurilee McMichael
Tūrangi artist and designer Paretuiri Simeon with some of her machine-made kakahu, intended as family heirlooms. Photo / Laurilee McMichael
Artist Paretuiri Simeon says many whānau Māori want to have a kākahu (cloak) for special occasions.
Graduations, weddings, birthdays, 21sts, tangihanga, unveilings, special occasions — right down to small kākahu for tamariki graduating from kohanga reo.
"Isn't that cool?" the Tūrangi designer and wearable artist says. "I wish they didthat when my children were at kohanga reo — so cute."
Paretuiri even makes tiny kākahu that mothers will put on their newborn babies to wear when they leave the hospital. Those are often passed around families for new babies to wear. Another thing she makes for babies are muka pito, a traditional tie for the baby's umbilical cord with medicinal properties and so much more pleasant and culturally appropriate than a plastic clip.
"People buy them but I also give them away to people who are pregnant. They've been sterilised — I boil them when they're done.
"And it's nice to keep it all sustainable and natural."
Paretuiri's shop, Te Koha Māori Art Studio in the Turangi town centre, sells Māori-made artworks and kawakawa balms, but its speciality is Paretuiri's Māori feather cloaks, known as kākahu huruhuru.
She opened the shop in response to demand for her Māori-made artworks and garments. The doors were open the week before Christmas and although word of what she does is still spreading, she has sold several kākahu already.
"People were coming to me and asking 'can you make a kākahu, I desperately need a kākahu', but the traditional ones were out of their reach. So they would say 'why don't you sew me one?' and they told someone and they told someone else and that's when I got the idea of having a shop."
A traditional handmade kākahu has hours and hours of work in it. There is one on the shop wall that Paretuiri made by hand. Each feather has been individually twisted in and the cloak has a taniko, traditionally woven edging. It costs $3000, a sum that's hardly surprising when you learn it took her six months to produce.
But Paretuiri also sells machine-made, fully lined kākahu where the feathers are sewn on using a sewing machine and a whatu or whare band along the top. The feathers used are mostly rooster, chicken and pheasant feathers, sourced online.
Because the machine method is considerably less time-consuming, those kākahu sell for around $600 to $700 and are more affordable.
"I thought as long as I'm going to make imitation feather cloaks I might as well make them look real," Paretuiri says.
"My family, my extended family and my people can't afford those [handmade] pieces.
"Every Māori family wants to have a kākahu, every Māori family needs a kākahu. Unfortunately, some can't afford to buy them and some don't have weavers in their family to make them so I've made it easier for people to access a kākahu at an affordable price."
Paretuiri sees what she is producing as a legacy item for whānau, a taonga to treasure and to share around the whānau as needed and pass down in future.
"I say to people 'you treasure your kākahu'. I have a pamphlet for the care and protection of it and I tell them 'each time your kākahu is worn, record it'. It makes a really marvellous heirloom."
Paretuiri Simeon in her Turangi shop, Te Koha Māori Art Studio. Photo / Laurilee McMichael
Besides specialising in traditional and contemporary kākahu, Paretuiri also makes items from muka and harakeke. A black harakeke fascinator in her shop would not look out of place at a race meeting fashion competition or an upscale garden party.
There are whāriki (woven mats) and putiputi (flowers) made in a traditional weaving technique called raranga, from harakeke Paretuiri harvested herself. Her muka items are also made by hand. The silky, cream-coloured fibre inside the harakeke takes considerable effort to extract and this is a highly specialised traditional skill.
Her niece Nadia Marshall makes poi and also earrings — tiny kete and woven dangly earrings are both beautiful and uniquely Māori — and another local, Maataparekaru Mellon, makes kawakawa balms, widely used in rongoā Māori, which are excellent for eczema and skin conditions.
Paretuiri's nieces are selling their goods through the shop too at present but Paretuiri says while she likes the idea of the shop being whānau-based, she would also like to use it as a platform for other artists to come in and display their wares - although she adds that goods need to have a Māori focus.
While some people might have hesitated to open a shop in the post-Covid environment, Paretuiri says the lockdown actually proved a help in some ways because it gave her a head-start on producing stock.
"If it wasn't for Covid I wouldn't have been able to make all these kākahu to put in the shop when it opened."
Paretuiri says she prefers to make the contemporary kākahu because, unlike traditional ones, there are no boundaries.
"With the traditional a lot comes with it. You have to stay within those boundaries. I like to be free."
